Mooncakes Bring Mid-Autumn Festival to Life

Excitement filled the room on October 6, as students in the AP Chinese Language and Culture 12 class got ready to roll, knead, and stamp mooncakes in honour of the Mid-Autumn Festival — one of the most celebrated holidays in Chinese culture.

In AP Chinese class, Modern Languages teacher Jennifer Mao leads the entire class in Mandarin. Step by step, Ms. Mao guided students through the traditions and symbolism of the festival. She explained that the round shape of mooncakes represents unity and togetherness, while sharing them among family and friends symbolizes reunion and harmony under the full moon.

At the end of a long table, Ms. Mao demonstrated how to make the traditional sweets by hand. She unwrapped a small ball of mochi dough — its soft, round form a nod to the full moon — and pressed it gently in her palm before adding a touch of colour and a pinch of sweet red bean paste. Then came the magic moment: pressing the dough into a patterned mould and releasing it to reveal an intricate, flower-stamped mooncake.

Soon, students were rolling up their sleeves and trying it themselves. Some experimented with swirls of colour; others kept theirs simple, pressing careful patterns into the smooth dough. The room buzzed with laughter, conversation, and the fresh scent of pomelo, the large citrus fruit often eaten during the festival for its symbolic shape — round like the moon, yet filled with crescent-shaped segments inside.

Cultural Traditions Come to Life

Hands-on lessons like this bring language and culture together in tangible ways. While many students in the class speak Mandarin fluently, fewer have deep familiarity with the traditions behind it. 

“Part of learning a language is understanding the stories, customs, and values that shape it,” Ms. Mao explained. “When students make connections like this — when they see, touch, and taste the culture — it deepens their learning.”

Students shared that the experience reminded them of home and family. Several from Hong Kong were used to having mooncakes every year at this time, although they usually buy them from the store, while another student, Kayler Kim, with Korean heritage, described her own family’s version made with rice flour. For everyone, it was a chance to celebrate the festival’s universal message of reunion and gratitude. As they worked, conversation turned to the myth behind the Mid-Autumn Festival — a story of love, courage and immortality that many students grew up hearing and were eager to recount.

Celebrating Together

The classroom celebration is just one of many ways the SMUS community marked the Mid-Autumn Festival. That evening from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Sun Centre, the Chinese Culture Club hosted a special evening featuring student performances, music, and storytelling. The event, open to all, brought together students and staff to honour a rich cultural heritage — one that celebrates unity, reflection, and the light that connects us all beneath the same moon.