MC Office of Global Education’s Mid-Autumn Festival brings Asian culture to Clinton’s doorstep

Members of the Clinton community won’t have to wait until November to enjoy a time of family and fellowship. Many Americans may be surprised to learn that citizens of several countries in Southeast Asia and along the Pacific Rim also observe a thanksgiving holiday in late September.

The Office of Global Education at Mississippi College will sponsor its annual version of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time when international faculty, staff, and students treat their American peers to a sample of their fall “thanksgiving” custom. The event will include samples of tasty dishes, vibrant costumes, entertaining skits, lovely songs, and a warm sense of community.

People living in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan who depend upon agriculture to feed their families and make a living recognize that an abundant fall crop is worthy of celebration.

Through centuries, these countries formed their own traditional harvest celebrations, converging into a Mid-Autumn Festival for everyone to enjoy. The traditional holiday, also known as the Moon Festival, has become an integral part of the Asian culture, both home and abroad.

This year’s celebration at MC is scheduled from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Piazza on the main campus. All MC faculty, staff, and students are invited to the free event, as are members of the Clinton community.

Mei-Chi Piletz, executive director of the Office of Global Education, said the Mid-Autumn Festival is customarily a family focused celebration.

“We give thanks for the harvest and we celebrate the reunion of family,” Piletz said. “On this day, everybody will come home and sit around a table and enjoy the feast. You get together under the full moon with your family and exchange well-wishes for longevity, good fortune, health, and peace.

“It’s a major holiday in these countries, a time when family members come together from different parts of the world. Train stations and highways are packed with travelers who are returning home to celebrate. Some international students tend to get homesick on this day.”

MC’s celebration may be a little more subdued compared to those of other countries, but it will entertain newcomers while offering those from Southeast Asian countries a small taste of home.

The event will offer small samples of Chinese food – including the ubiquitous mooncakes – songs and skits performed by students, and educational presentations by students from South Korea and Cambodia, who will explain how the festival is celebrated in their homelands.

“This is the first time we have had a student from Cambodia join us,” Piletz said. “We are also going to have Vietnamese students from the intensive English program here.”

She said that round “mooncakes” – pastries that usually contains a rich, thick filling surrounded by a thin crust – have become the traditional delicacy of the occasion. Mooncakes are exchanged between friends or family members celebrating the festival.

“We call it ‘mooncake’ because it’s in the shape of the Moon, symbolizing family, unity, reunion, completeness, and togetherness,” Piletz said.

For students like Yu-Hsiang Hsuang, who will perform a song, “Rice Field” during the festival, the annual event represents a time of connection.

“The connection between this song and the Moon Festival is that both of them emphasize the importance of family,” Hsuang said. “The Moon Festival is a day that people reunite and gather around with their family, and so does this song’s meaning.

“It is very nice to see MC is hosting this event that reminds me that family is always what I can rely on, even if I am studying abroad in the U.S.”

Hsuang’s fellow MC students, Juyoung Son and Younsu Bae, will introduce Korea’s version of the Mid-Autumn Festival to the assembly.

“Chuseok is one of the biggest holidays in Korea,” Son said. “People celebrate the full Moon and pray for a good harvest, observed annually on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Lunar Calendar. These days, during the long holiday, families gather to make traditional food and enjoy traditional games.

“MC’s Moon Festival is important because it allows people living far from their hometowns to celebrate one of their biggest traditional holidays. It also provides a great opportunity to introduce the culture of another country to the people here.”

Piletz said various Asian cultures have developed their own versions of how the festival came into being. Tiffany Tseng, a visiting instructor in modern languages, invited her class to perform an entertaining skit about Chang’e, a fascinating figure in Chinese mythology. Chang’e’s story is one of the most famous in Chinese culture and lends a colorful tone to the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to legend, long ago, 10 suns appeared in the sky. A hero named Hou Yi shot down nine of them and was rewarded with an elixir of immortality.

One day, a villain broke into the home Hou Yi shared with his wife, Chang’e, to steal the elixir. In a moment of urgency, Chang’e swallowed the elixir and floated to the Moon, becoming a fairy, forever separated from her husband. To honor Chang’e’s sacrifice, people started the mooncake tradition based on this folklore.

“The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important traditional Chinese festivals,” Tseng said. “The full Moon symbolizes reunion, a deep sentiment, especially for those far from home, expressing feelings of longing and homesickness.

“In today’s globalized world, language and cultural exchanges help broaden our perspectives. That’s why I’m grateful that MC continues to host the Mid-Autumn Festival and other cultural events each year. These activities not only introduce people to Chinese culture, but also inspire students to develop an interest in learning Chinese, giving them opportunities to expand their horizons in Taiwan, China, and beyond.”

Piletz said she enjoys inviting students from different Asian countries to join in the celebration because the festival is not only celebrated in China.

“The Mid-Autumn Festival is an educational opportunity. We want the people in our community to get to know the rest of the world,” she said. “We want our international students to share something about their countries’ rich cultures with others.

“You can look up information about another culture on the Internet, but there’s nothing like this festival to bring the culture right to your own backyard.”

For more information about the Office of Global Education’s Mid-Autumn Festival, email Piletz at mcpiletz@mc.edu.