The Georgetown Asian American Student Association (AASA), Chinese Student Alliance (CSA) and Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) collaborated to host the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional holiday in many Asian countries, on Sept. 23.
Over 120 students celebrated the festival in the HFSC Great Room. Many attendees dressed in cultural clothes such as qipao, horse-face skirts, ornamented pleated skirts and áo dài, long tunic worn over silk trousers.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Moon Festival, is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month — Sept. 29 this year. The moon is believed to be the fullest on this day, symbolizing harvest and togetherness. People celebrate by reuniting with their families, decorating and lighting lanterns and eating mooncakes.
Jacky Sun (SOH ’26), programming (PRG) co-chair of AASA, said that this was one of the largest-scale Mid-Autumn festivals AASA has hosted because of their collaboration this year with CSA and VSA.
“The one last year was more casual. I was in PRG last year, and we wanted to expand upon that. We had the opportunity to do a collab this time and we took it,” Sun told the Hoya. “It definitely took on a different challenge.”
The festival started with an introduction of the Mid-Autumn traditions in Vietnam, China and Indonesia before students enjoyed traditional Asian foods including scallion pancakes, vegetable spring rolls and dumplings.
Students also viewed multiple dance and music performances. Performers demonstrated traditional folk dances and songs written by Asian and Asian-American artists.
Spring Ma (SFS ’26) played the song “Blue and White Porcelain” by Jay Chou on the guzheng, a Chinese string instrument.
“I’ve been playing the guzheng since I was six, and I enjoyed performing tonight. I’m very grateful and honored to be invited to play here and communicate this Chinese cultural aspect with the Asian community,” Ma told the Hoya. “I feel like many people knew this song, and it made me really happy to celebrate the same culture with everyone.”
Students decorated paper lanterns and enjoyed dessert, mooncakes and drinks after the performances. Students could choose from double egg yolk and mixed nuts mooncakes and green and jasmine tea.
Zoe Li (CAS ’27), an attendee, said that she enjoyed getting to taste different food.
“My favorite was the Vietnamese dessert, chè thái,” Li told The Hoya. “It was the first time I had it and I loved it.”
Li said she felt a strong sense of cultural community during the festival.
“There was a lot of festivity around. There were lanterns hanging all over the place and people were wearing red and traditional clothing,” Li told the Hoya. “There was a strong sense of belonging and I really appreciate being able to find that here at Georgetown.”
Maggie Yang (SFS ’27), another attendee, said she found the festival interesting because of the diversity of cultures.
“There was food and dances from multiple cultures. It wasn’t just about one community but different communities coming together for a single event and so that made it extremely fun,” Yang told the Hoya. “I loved the performances through which I got to see all kinds of talents.”
Sun said the clubs hosting the Mid-Autumn Festival aimed to make freshmen feel a little more at home at Georgetown and especially in the Asian community.
“The Mid-Autumn Festival has a lot of freshmen attendees, and I think around this time, about a month in, is when freshmen really do start to miss home,” Sun said. “I think just being able to eat the food you ate growing up and seeing the faces that look like you is what the Mid-Autumn Festival strives to achieve at the end of the day.”
