The arrival of the fall season signifies the approach of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival for many students. This traditional holiday falls on the eighth month and 15th day of the lunar calendar, which corresponds to Oct. 4 this year.

In preparation for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese Club officers held a meeting on Sept. 28 for their members to get in the spirit of the holiday’s festivities. As the lunch bell rang and members filed into room A203, the officers prepared supplies for members to make their own paper lanterns.

Senior and co-president Jessie Pao holds up a finished paper lantern. Making and lighting lanterns is one common way to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo by Charlotte Chui.

Though the reason behind the tradition has been lost over time, making and lighting lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a classic way to celebrate. Some lanterns also have riddles written in them for people to guess the answers to. Senior and social manager Kendall Yu expands on the significance of holding these meetings and allowing members to participate in these traditional activities.

“This club is all about spreading Chinese culture and educating people about it,” Yu said. “We’re going to have another meeting next week to do a presentation on [the Mid-Autumn Festival] and give information about it.”

Senior and co-president Jessie Pao agrees with Yu’s sentiments, emphasizing that these activities serve as a reminder and allow members to relate back to their roots.

“I feel like now in this society, a lot of people don’t know about a lot of the Chinese history and the holidays that we celebrate,” Pao said. “A lot of the people in Cupertino — we’re all Asian but we don’t really know much about it. So I think it’s important to relate back to our family members and [the] older generation.”

Outside of making paper lanterns in celebration, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also associated with traditional foods that are eaten during this time. One of the most prominent foods is the round-shaped mooncakes. As the Chinese word for round and reunion sound similar, both with the spelling tuan yuan, the mooncake also symbolizes Chinese reunion. For Pao, the traditional food that comes along with the holiday is one of her favorite aspects.

“There’s always a lot of great desserts that we have in our family,” Pao said. “Sometimes when our family comes to visit in the holiday time, they’ll bring back food from Taiwan and those are the best.”

Scroll down to learn more about traditional Chinese foods and celebratory activities of the Mid-Autumn Festival