Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival

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If you are in Chicago, you can definitely feel the change in season right now. Especially around the first and second week of September, the cool breeze swept in and sweaters were brought out to wear. My instincts told me otherwise through seasonal allergies- yes, I am sick.

With the changing of the season, the Asian culture celebrates this transition with a Mid-Autumn Festival, or more commonly for me (since I am Vietnamese), Tet Trung Thu.

This holiday was a fun one especially when I was a kid. At my church, I was given a lantern with colorful pictures with a lit candle and tassel at the bottom. I, among other kids my age, would walk around the parking lot in the evening with our lanterns listening to Tet Trung Thu Ruoc Den Di Choi song blasting on the speakers. After our little march, full-sized moon cakes were distributed to everyone and then we got to play games and earn prizes afterwards. The grown-ups would get cakes too and would socialize with one another. Imagine this memory with the full-moon so big and bright, and you’ve got a classic vision of what my Mid-Autumn festival was like when I was younger.

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In high school and in the beginning of college, I strayed away from those “childish” things because I had other things I could be doing- schoolwork, watching TV, etc. Fortunately, Loyola gave me the opportunity to reach back to my roots and let me re-experience those nostalgic moments.

TOMORROW, September 29, CSA/VSA (Chinese Student Association/ Vietnamese Student Association), will host their annual MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL in Damen MPR North at 7pm.

Here, you will be able to immerse yourself into the Asian culture through learning the history of the mid-autumn festival, playing traditional games, and tasting different yummy food of Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine! As tradition with this holiday, you will be able to try out a moon cake, which is always a favorite and interesting thing to try out among people.

Here’s the promo flyer:

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For a more interesting take on how people celebrate Tet Trung Thu, watch Kyle Le’s video of his time in Vietnam! It’s a really good and NEW video! Instead of individual lanterns that children traditionally walk around with, students are shown with massive, handmade float-like lanterns!

Take a look:

 

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