UH Hilo celebrates 2023 Chinese Moon Festival
The event was colorful and lively, decorated with red and yellow signs, lanterns, paintings, and lion heads.
Earlier this month, the University of Hawai’i at Hilo celebrated the annual Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, for the first time in three years. Following the hiatus due to pandemic restrictions, students from classes on Chinese language (CHNS 101) and Chinese folklore and symbolism (CHNS 350) hosted the Oct. 2 event. The classes are taught by Jiren Feng, an associate professor of Chinese studies and program coordinator for the Chinese studies certificate program who heads the Moon Festival each year.
The Moon Festival event was colorful and lively, decorated with red and yellow signs, lanterns, paintings, and colorful lion heads. Students and faculty enjoyed the activities such as having their names written in Chinese and practicing calligraphy.
Throughout this event, people enjoyed Chinese music, festival legends, recitations of classical poems, folk dancing, traditional lion dance, and more.
During the Moon Festival, people traditionally watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and raise lanterns. This is an important time for families to be together.
Paintings that decorated the event represented the story of the Moon Festival, depicting moon goddess Chang’e ascending to the moon. This story focuses on the archer Hou Yi, who shot nine of the 10 suns in the sky. After having been given an elixir of immortality, Hou Yi kept it at home. In some stories, his wife Chang’e took the elixir and ascended. In other versions, she stole it and drank it, or accidentally found it and was forced to take it due to intruders. It is said that she can be seen in the silhouette of the full moon. This is why families look to the full moon on this day to think of their families.
Story by Cheylan Zimmermann, an English major at UH Hilo.
