How many students does it take to finish a moon cake? This past Saturday, nearly 200 hungry revelers at the second annual Mid-Autumn Festival celebration answered that question.

The event, which was located on Asian/Asian-American House’s lawn, provided a fun evening of food, cultural celebration, and, of course, moon cake and more moon cake.

“It turned out to be extremely successful,” said Alecia Ng ’14, house manager of Chinese House and one of the organizers of the event. “We planned for 100 tickets yet more than 180 people showed up!”

Besides offering a large amount of free Chinese and Japanese food, the festival incorporated a number of cultural events, beginning with a traditional lion dance performance, a short speech explaining the cultural significance of the festival by Professor Po-wei Weng of the Asian Languages and Literatures and Music department, and a rendition of “Thinking of You,” an old ballad relating to the festival.

The evening ended with a paper lantern walk, a common activity in countries where the festival is traditionally celebrated.

The event, which won the Best Program of the Year award last year, involved collaboration across seven student groups and program halls, including Asian/Asian-American House, Full House, Chinese House, Japanese Hall, the Hong Kong Students’ Association, Taiwanese Cultural Society, and Panda Club, the Chinese Student Association.

“We wanted an event that emphasized the cultural value of Mid-Autumn Festival while allowing folks to have fun and enjoy good food and company,” said Gavin Swee ’13, house manager of Asian/Asian-American House. “In particular, we wanted to emphasize how the moon has particular significance in the East Asian/Chinese psyche.”

Also known as the Moon Cake Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most significant events in Chinese culture, dating back over 3,000 years. It generally falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese or Lunar Calendar and is a public holiday in both China and Taiwan.

The amount of student effort invested in preparation for the event was noteworthy, particularly since all the food was self-catered. Though the organizers had initially planned to cook for only 100 guests, they were able to provide something for everyone. Full House and Writing House residents made 600 dumplings from scratch, and Japanese Hall residents cooked fifteen batches of oyakudon (a Japanese dish comprised of chicken, eggs, and onions).

One of the organizers traveled all the way to New York City just to acquire the paper lanterns and candles for the event.

Angela Mann ’13, house manager of Japanese Hall, recalled that, at one point, all the residents of Japanese Hall in the kitchen were crying from chopping onions.

“It was probably one of the biggest, most labor-intensive events so far,” Swee said.

Despite all the labor and preparation involved, the event was completely free of charge.

“We didn’t want a few dollars to prevent folks from attending the event, and since making money was not our objective at all, we tried to make it free,” Swee said. “With the support of the SBC and SALD, thankfully we didn’t have to compromise our vision.”

Both he and Mann stressed that one of the goals of the event was not only to share the significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also to bring it to the larger community at Wesleyan. Weng said that though the Mid-Autumn Festival is important in the Chinese mindset, he was glad to see that it brought together diverse groups of students.

“The good thing about this event is that it gathered people to share a part of culture,” Weng said.

Several other faculty members also attended the festival, including Professor Tony Day of the History Department and Ms. Haruka Nishimura and Ms. Yen-Yu Chen, Teaching Fellows in the Asian Languages and Literatures Department.

The organizers said that they probably will not hold any more events that involve this scale of collaboration and preparation until spring semester. However, they emphasized that the different groups would continue to promote their mission statements and hold events to celebrate cultural diversity on campus.