Second annual Autumn Moon festival an ACA success

Despite the wind and sporadic rain last Friday, a large number of students came to enjoy great music, games and delicious desserts at the Second Annual Autumn Moon Festival which was moved from the Quad to the 4th floor Programming Room.

The Autumn Moon Festival, hosted by the Asian Cultural Alliance (ACA), brought an array of Loyola students, faculty, administrators and families. This festival gave the members of Loyola an opportunity to explore different cultures and remember their childhood.

The event started at 5pm but many ACA members were working much earlier to set up tables and get ready to provide the students a fun time. The event was put together in collaboration with ALANA Services, SGA, the Jujitsu, Belly dancing, and Chinese clubs. SGA members came to help ACA with the games at the tables.

Olivia Nanda, '12, and member of ACA thought the event was successful. "It's great that there are bringing a lot of cultures together in the Asian continent," said Nanda. Steph LaPersonne, '12, added that this event "teaches people about different celebrations of different cultures, and it is fun to go to after having a stressful day."

ACA's President NgocLan Nguyen, '10, who provided the idea of the festival last year, commented on the changes included in this year's Autumn Festival. She concluded that this festival was just as successful but less hectic because a lot of things ran more smoothly.. "Something that was commented last year is that our volunteers didn't get a chance to see the festival, this year we had shifts and I made sure everybody switched," said Nguyen.

Zach Bruno, '12, thought that a fun festival is a way to bring a lot of people together. "A big festival is a great idea, I wish it could have been outside," he said. Bruno also noticed the improvements in this year's festival, "It was better put together [this year] and it would have been amazing outside."

Games included last year's favorites such as pin the tail on the panda, Sumo wrestling and human musical chairs. A couple of new games were added to this fun festival and almost all of them gave the students a chance to compete for the pool of tickets which were later exchange at the prize table.

Other additions were the mini-lessons and performances which were the highlight of the night. The Sisters of Ishtar Belly Dancing Troupe gave the audience a quick tutorial after their performance engaging everybody to participate in the fun. This interactive component presented by this club, along with the Kung Fu station and Ju-Jitsu Club, allowed the people participating to get immersed in certain cultural aspects of Asia.

Gina Antonelly, head of the belly dance troupe, said that when Nguyen asked them to include a mini-lesson to their performance the group was excited. "Although most people connect belly dancing with the Middle East they are many styles and a lot of them came from Asia," said Antonelly adding that ACA is one of the organizations that help them promote that.

SGA and ALANA Services also supported ACA's efforts to put this program together. Kim Turner, ALANA Services Associate Director, applauded ACA's constant collaboration with SGA and other organization on campus because this connects people and helps to "carry out our mission [to promote cultural diversity] and their mission as well."

Nicole Elia, '12 who is an RA, came with her residents to be part of the festival as a cultural program. Her residents enjoy themselves and had a lot of fun with the games; however, they did not know the history behind this festival.

Gianna Mautone, '13, who enjoyed herself at the festival and loved the green tea ice cream, wished the festival "had some hot food dishes and maybe some games that were part of this festival's tradition."

The Moon festival is celebrated every year on the fifteenth day of the eight moon. "The festival is celebrated by many Asian cultures and is for noting the end of the summer harvesting season," said LaPersonne. "I celebrate this time of year at home by eating moon cakes and being with family, so it's definitely nice to be able to still celebrate it here at Loyola."

Nguyen said the games sought to bring students back to their childhood because this day issupposed to be for the children. "It is more like an excuse to celebrate the harvest moon now, a time to get a carnival," said Nguyen. This date is celebrated differently across the Asian continent but, according to Nguyen, the idea was to "share this tradition and have them experience what we did as kids."

Nguyen was happy with the great turn out and thinks that the festival increases ACA's visibility on campus and help to break stereotypes and more importantly it shows that "learning about culture is fun and culture should be shared.