TAG-Confucius Institute holds a celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day 

TAG-Confucius Institute (TAG-CI) held a celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day with Xinhua News Agency reporters as guests.
The Mid-Autumn Festival coincided with National Day on October 1 this year.

The celebration consisted of three parts: festival culture class, handmade lanterns, videos-shooting and interviews by Xinhua News Agency reporters.
First of all, the teachers played wonderful videos and PowerPoint in class to introduce Chinese festivals to the students so that they could understand the festival customs and experience the rich festival atmosphere.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second largest traditional festival in China and falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. There are many myths and legends on the Mid-Autumn Festival, among which the story of “Chang’e flying to the moon” is the most widely spread. Since ancient times, there have been the customs of admiring the full moon on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, watching lanterns, eating mooncakes and enjoying osmanthus blossoms, etc. The students followed the teacher’s explanation and video, listening to the moving story, enjoying the food and beautiful scenery, experiencing the missing affection with the full moon, and praying for the harvest and happiness.

The National Day falls on October 1 of solar calendar. This year marks the 71st birthday of the People’s Republic of China. The students watched the magnificent National Day military parade video, artistic performance and pictures showing the great achievements of China’s economic development.

 The teacher and students jointly wished China prosperity and Chinese people happiness and health.

Next was to make small lanterns by hand. The lanterns symbolize family reunion, business prosperity, brightness, happiness, vitality, wealth, and can create a festive and joyful atmosphere. Lanterns are hung up all over China on major festivals and happy days, indicating peace and happiness. The teacher distributed materials such as ribbons, paper rolls, scissors and double-faced tape to the students. Under the teacher’s demonstration and guidance, the students carefully cut and stuck. In a short while, the cute little lanterns bloomed in the hands of the students. The colorful lanterns not only added the festive atmosphere, but also brought people spiritual joy and hope for a better life in the future.

Xinhua News Agency reporters shot videos of the wonderful activities and interviewed Chinese Director, the teacher, students and parent as well. In the interview, Chinese Director Dr. Yang Songfang introduced the general situation of TAG-CI, Chinese language teaching and cultural events, the implementation of key projects, and the successful online teaching on the basis of preventing COVID-19 to ensure “no suspension of Chinese class”. Dr. Yang also said that Chinese language is currently attracting attention from all over the world. There are many contributing factors behind it and the most important ones are that China’s economic development has attracted the attention of all countries in the world, and China’s long history, culture and philosophy have long-term attraction and influence on the world. Especially the younger generation see that mastering Chinese will play a very important role in enhancing their international competitiveness, their future academic development and employment in the future, so they look to China. 

Ms. Guan Xia talked about her personal experience in teaching Chinese and how to use teaching skills and means to effectively improve Chinese teaching. 
The children told the reporters that Chinese is a very unique language and they like Chinese language and culture. Their school offers Arabic and English, and they are willing to come to TAG-CI to learn the third language Chinese. They plan to go to China to study in the future. The adult student said that he has been to many cities in China, has some Chinese friends, and can speak some Chinese. He wants to learn Chinese systematically at TAG-CI, especially to improve his writing ability. 

The parent said that the beautiful Chinese culture attracts her children to learn Chinese. Besides, China has made great economic and social achievements in various fields, so she wants her children to know more about China and Chinese culture. Learning Chinese can help her children to understand the real China. The teachers, students and parents jointly expressed their best wishes to China and Chinese people.

The Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day celebration not only allowed the students to experience Chinese festival culture in a relaxed and happy atmosphere, understand the connotation of Chinese festival culture, but also inspired their love for Chinese language and culture.