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Chinese community celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival
Some 200 people gathered at the Carolinian Utt in Garapan last Saturday to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Lanterns lit the Carolinian Utt in Garapan as the Chinese Association of Saipan celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival. Floating lanterns were also released to the sky and the sea. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)
“This festival gathers together families for a ‘harvest dinner,’” Chinese Education Center principal Rose Chan said.
Organized by the Chinese Association of Saipan, the utt was adorned with colorful lanterns, while about 200 lanterns were given to the children who attended the event.
The festival is also known by names such as the Lantern Festival, Mooncake Festival and Harvest Moon Festival traditionally celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar.
Aside from the hanging paper lanterns, the association also lit about 30 floating lanterns that were released at sea, and some that were released to the sky. As is tradition, the sky lanterns had wishes on them.
“The one thing that’s very special for our team is we have the sky lanterns,” Chan said. “In the sky lanterns, we had a wish for all Saipan people to be happy and healthy.”
According to Chan, their organization has been doing this in past years but only for the education center. This time they invited other families as well. The last time they did a big event was more than 10 years ago.
“Typhoon Soudelor is hurting everybody and having a bad time, so we invited everybody to just enjoy and welcome the moon,” Chan said.
Aside from the lanterns, the people also enjoyed food such as moon cakes and fruits, which they also got to take home.
Chan said she is happy that the event was a success despite the rainy weather. “The kids were singing songs; the people enjoyed flying the lanterns, everybody’s happy.”
