Mid-Autumn Festival!

This week at MAIA students were able to celebrate a familiar celebration - the Mid-Autumn Festival,

which is a harvest festival, celebrated in most East Asian countries, such as China and Vietnam. The festival takes places on month 8 day 15 of the Chinese calendar. In 2017 it's on October 4th.

It is the second most important festival in China after Chinese New Year. To the Chinese, the festival means family reunion and peace. It is also called "the moon festival" as it is celebrated when the moon is believed to be the biggest and fullest.

Once we broke open the mooncakes, the flow of students was non-stop! Students painted all of our 50 lanterns and got very creative, some great examples included a Pokeball, faces, flags, and landscape paintings. The lanterns are now displayed near the cafeteria for all to enjoy. Students also enjoyed music, socializing, and eating mid-autumn festival mooncakes, the real Chinese version!

Although students were away from home for this holiday, we made MAIA feel more like home with this event celebrating the changing seasons and spending time together. Students also got to be creative, and show off their arts skills and humor and create something they could hang in their room or in the atrium.