Orange Coast College hosted a Mid-Autumn festival on Tuesday to celebrate students of AANHPI heritage and to educate people on Asian culture and traditions. Booths were set up for tea tasting, origami as well as educating people on the folklore and the tradition of making moon cake. 

Event organizer Hannah Hoang wanted to kick start the new AANHPI Student Achievement Program by hosting a celebration of the Mid-Autumn festival. The festival is also known as the Mooncake Festival and is meant to celebrate the autumn harvest. 

As part of the Student Services team, Hoang said her main goal for organizing the event was to showcase different cultures and holidays. 

“I really want exposure to our culture because we do have a large Vietnamese student population here on campus and other Asian American and Pacific Islander communities as well and I do want everyone to be celebrated,” Hoang said. 

OCC student Eikay Dzinh thought that including a dragon dance in the festival was important in showcasing Chinese culture.  

“I’m from an Asian country so I’ve seen it before, but for people here might not have seen it and they might be interested in what Chinese culture will be like,” Dzinh said.

Lanterns are a staple in the Mid Autumn festival and the event hosted a booth for people to make paper lanterns. Students lined up to taste the tea and mooncakes as well as to learn about the traditions and folklore that are normally practiced during the festival. 

The dragon dance happened at noon and showcased the ensemble of instruments, including drums and symbols that went along with the performance. 

OCC student body president Savannah Garcia wanted to check out and support the event with her student assistant. 

“I think it really creates a community on campus. I think that it really shows that OCC is looking to have a diverse campus and I think including this event into the campus shows the different cultures that happen in other countries. It shows that OCC is encaptivating a really diverse culture here,” Garcia said.