What do decorating lanterns, eating fresh fruit and traditional Asian pastries and lion dances have to do with each other? Brandeis’s Southeast Asian Club, a club dedicated to educating about and celebrating multiple countries in Southeast Asia, combined these things at their annual Mid-Autumn Festival on Wednesday.

In an email to the Justice, SEAC co-president Megan Chan ’16 explained that while the Mid-Autumn Festival is not unique to one Asian country or culture but to countries including China, Korea, Burma and Vietnam, SEAC wanted to “give our members a taste of what Asian communities all over the world gather to celebrate.” Chan explained that in years past, SEAC has hosted celebrations for Loi Krathong, a traditional autumnal celebration in Thailand, Laos and Burma and Tet Trung Thu, a harvest festival in Vietnam. While all of these festivals and traditions are different, they do take place at roughly the same time each year, and Chan thought integrating various elements of each tradition would provide “[each country’s] own special meaning and different celebratory customs” to the celebration.

This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival was a community gathering to celebrate family and friendship, according to Chan. SEAC’s Event Coordinators Tony Tran ’17 and Maryanne Cai ’17 started the event with a brief presentation about the Mid-Autumn Festival and some traditions at events like Tet Trung Thu, including parades, lion and dragon dancers and decorating paper lanterns. As Chan explained in her email, each culture has their own Mid-Autumn Festival traditions, such as in China, where “the consumption and gift-giving of mooncakes, a well-known pastry eaten during the festival, is prominent.” Chan shared that “Korea also celebrates the Mid-Autumn festival, but calls it ‘Chuseok’ instead,” a celebration that is similar to American Thanksgiving.

Following the presentation, the participants were split into two groups, one group to eat and the other to decorate SEAC’s take on traditional lanterns. Unfortunately, lion dancing did not turn out to be on the evening’s menu, but the food that was served was delicious. Students enjoyed home-cooked chicken and vegetarian pad mee—a traditional stir-fry noodle dish—and milky Thai tea. Members of the SEAC executive board prepared apples, peaches and grapes and purchased mooncakes from local Waltham favorite, Tom Can Cook. The mooncakes came in a variety of flavors, including red bean and sweet gourd. Some of the mooncakes had a special surprise in the form of a hard-boiled egg in the middle. While the flavors were unusual, the cakes themselves were delicious and reminiscent of American pie. Students mingled around tables as they ate, trying to solve pre-prepared riddles and writing messages to family members and loved ones.

Other students gathered around a table in the middle of the room to make a simplified version of paper lanterns. It was an easy process. Students took foam paper and cut them into any shape of their choosing. Popular shapes were hearts, circles and stars, although there was one impressive cutout of Mario from the Mario Kart franchise. Once the base shape was cut out, participants would take shredded crayons and sprinkle them over large pieces of wax paper. Members of the SEAC e-board would then use a hairdryer to melt the crayon pieces so the colors mixed and swirled over the waxed paper. Once the waxed paper cooled down, students would fold and tape it around the base shapes and put an electric tea light in the center. The homemade lamps were beautiful, casting lights and colors all over the room.

Chan wrote to the Justice that the goal of the Mid-Autumn Festival was “to actively immerse the [attendees] in the event itself (so we aimed to make everything authentic, like it would actually be in China or Vietnam)” and to present an interactive event that would help the Brandeis community learn more about a variety of cultures.

As someone who came into the Mid-Autumn Festival with very little knowledge about the Southeast Asian traditions, I thought SEAC did a great job of presenting a variety of cultures in a delicious and crafty way.