Celebrate Confucius’ birthday at Mid-Autumn Festival

Hear the calming sounds of the guqin’s plucked strings, watch the flowing movement of Chinese folk dances, and taste sweet Chinese moon cakes at this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival and Confucius Institute Day, which will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27 in the Jaguar Student Activities Center Ballroom.

This year’s event marks the 5th anniversary of the Augusta University Confucius Institute, the first Confucius Institute in the United States to focus on Traditional Chinese Medicine.

To celebrate the special occasion, students who participated in Confucius Institute courses and study abroad programs will share their talents.

A music major who traveled to China on the study abroad program offered through the Confucius Institute and the Department of Music in May will play the erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument. Students in the Mandarin Chinese language courses offered through the CI and the English & Foreign Languages Department will sing a Chinese song called “The Moon Represents My Heart.”

Two students from the Chinese language classes will be the emcees for the event and will share the history of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, a harvest festival held on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar and traditionally celebrated with family and friends.

The event will also include performances by members of the Augusta Chinese community, the Augusta University Jazz Ensemble, and Yang Liu — a faculty member in the Department of Music who is visiting from Shanghai Normal University. Liu will play the bamboo flute. His wife, Can Li, will play the guqin, an ancient Chinese stringed instrument.

Attendees can taste Chinese moon cakes at the end of the Mid-Autumn and Confucius Institute Day celebration.

Confucius Institute Day commemorates the anniversary of Confucius Institutes all over the world and the birthday of Confucius, the ancient scholar whose philosophy is widely considered the foundation of Chinese culture even to this day.

For more information about this event, visit the Confucius Institute or call 706-721-8399.