Pakistani students, faculty members, staff and representatives of different social groups joined their Chinese living in Pakistan on Thursday in the festivities of “Zhong Qiu Jie”, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated at National University of Modern Languages (NUML).
Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations were arranged by Confucius Institute Islamabad (CII) and NUML in collaboration with Embassy of Peoples’ Republic of China on Thursday.
The chief guests of the event were NUML Rector Maj Gen (r) Masood Hasan and Cultural Counselor of Chinese Embassy Zhang Yinbao and it was attended by the students and faculty members of Chinese Department and CII, NUML, and other academic institutions including National University of Science and Technology (NUST), City School, Roots International and Roots School System DHA-2.
NUML rector said, “The purpose of today’s celebrations is to express our solidarity with all Chinese nationals who are serving Pakistan under different capacities and to convey to them that they should not feel alone as Pakistan is their home and they are our family.”
“The symbol of this festival ‘the bright full moon’ is also analogous to our exemplary strong relations, which are higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the oceans,” he added.
Earlier, young exuberant students from Roots School System DHA-2 dressed in the scarlet red traditional attires presented Chinese traditional dances having the fusion of umbrella dance, fan dance, ribbon dance and dragon dance presenting the richness of Chinese culture and mythology as well as message of peace, love and harmony.
A Chinese teacher of CCI entertained the audience with his Chinese song “the waving national flag”.
Faculty members of Chinese Department recited a poem “When will the moon be full” in course and Head of Chinese Department Xinghan and Nayyar Nawaz presented a duo Chinese song and received course clapping and applauses.
An International Chinese student rendered a beautiful solo performance on guitar and sang Chinese songs to leave his countrymen feel nostalgic.
In the end, another beautiful performance by students of City School made them all to stand up and sang “Humara Percham, Yeh Payara Percham” and “Pak-Cheen Dosti Zinda Baad”.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on August 15 of the lunar calendar; it is one of the traditional festivals in China.
It is time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon, which is an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck.
Families have a dinner together and everyone likes to eat moon cakes. Chinese people who live far away from homes want to go back to have a family reunion.