|
||||||||||
A night filled with rich festival customs and food, music, games and - most importantly – laughter and joy. These were the essential ingredients of the Joint-Hall Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration held on 30 September 2009 at Multi-function Hall A. As student residents streamed in, they were greeted by the colourful decorations of mini Chinese lanterns, balloons and game booths presented by each Hall.
Each booth was crowded with a mixture of students who helped with the organisation and those who helped by participating. What made the mixture more joyful was the range of activities that we all participated in, reminding us of the games we used to play during our childhood. Each Hall chose a unique activity. The booth run by Lee Shau Kee Hall was very popular amongst international students as they had a chance to write Chinese calligraphy. JC Harmony Hall had a stream of students practicing their aim with darts and balloons while Chan Sui Kau Hall gathered a crowd of students blowing a table-tennis ball through cups of water. By the end of the event, every participant was involved in a cheering match to determine which Hall deserved the best booth award. This resulted in JC Humanity Hall receiving recognition for their “ice-skin” moon-cakes and “moon fishing” games. Although the game booths proved to give the most delight with prizes and festival snacks, participants also had an opportunity to enjoy singing performances by the winners of last year’s Inter-hall Singing Contest. Local and non-local students cheered on as the singing champion HE Guangqian sang “One Night in Beijing”. When we were cheering on the local singers, most of us were pleasantly surprised when a group of exchange and non-local students gathered on stage to sing a popular Putonghua song. Nobody had any doubt that that the “My Favourite Performance” award should go to the singing performers. The most fascinating dance of the night was one that involved a traditional lion dance performed by a martial arts group who drummed to live music. Being amongst friends whilst munching on cotton candy, hot dogs, popcorn and moon cakes gave me a chance to reminisce about my own childhood and join the local students in celebrating their Chinese culture in their home - the Student Residence in Cornwall Street. |
