Red streamers hung at the entrance of Tishman as colorful video clips of the traditional celebration played on the projector. The delicious smell of catered Chinese food wafted through the room. Wellesley’s Mid-Autumn Festival celebration had begun.
The mid-autumn festival, or Moon Festival, is an important harvest holiday across Asia, particularly in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. It’s traditionally held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar calendar, when a full moon is seen, this year falling on Sept. 17.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is not just about food and fun — it’s about remembering family, unity and tradition. Each year, the Chinese Students Association (CSA) hosts a celebration in Tishman for all students to celebrate the holiday. For CSA, the event is crucial for fostering cultural pride and community spirit among Chinese students, helping them feel connected to their traditions even while studying abroad or far from home. It also allows them to share their culture with non-Chinese peers, promoting cultural exchange and understanding.
CSA started planning for the celebration two months ago before school started. The celebration featured delicious catered Chinese food, mooncakes, mahjong, calligraphy, clay mooncake making and fan painting. The event is a Wellesley favorite, as the long line circling the Lulu staircase. Rihanna Perry ’28, described a “lovely atmosphere” where she could sit with her friends and have conversations with them.
While CSA’s event wasn’t on the official day celebrated on the Lunar Calendar, the Wellesley East Asian Language and Cultural (EALC) corridor had a small moon festival celebration on the official day in the Freeman TV room. This one was more intimate, with around 20 people packed into the tiny TV room, mostly for students taking a class with the EALC department and living on the language corridors. Across East Asia, the Moon Festival is celebrated differently in the Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures. Language assistants took turns introducing their traditions, followed by a tasting of mooncakes from each East Asian country. Afterwards, students played a Kahoot quiz game to better solidify their understanding of diversity and commonalities.
Seeing Asians at Wellesley joyfully be able to celebrate their cultural holidays and share with Wellesley students outside their cultural community is one of the most valuable experiences one can have at Wellesley. Even in the midst of the “Wellesley grind,” students can still take time to celebrate with friends and family and be grounded in the joy a holiday can bring, whether from your own culture or in learning about another.
Contact the editor(s) responsible for this story: Diya Khanna and Phoebe Rebhorn
