Page 11 - Winter 2018 YellowJacket

moon festival
Celebrating Chinese Legend, Lore, and Tradition
by Patricia Martin
Students, administrators, teachers, members of The W.L. Gilbert Trust Corporation, and the community gathered together on Thursday, September 28, 2017, for The Gilbert School’s fourth annual Harvest Moon Festival. Curated by the school’s International Program with help from The Friends of Main Street, the evening celebrated the traditional Asian autumn festival, which gives thanks for bountiful harvest and family, and offers hope for peace and prosperity.
This year’s festivities included arts and crafts tables featuring face painting, Chinese lantern making, and origami, as well as Chinese students who used beautiful calligraphy to write the names
of the guests in Mandarin. The audience was then entertained with a fun video dramatizing the festival’s
history, followed by three skilled musical performances by our talented International Program students. from Gilbert’s educational partnership with Central Connecticut State
University’s Confucius Institute, special guests from China, the Wenqin Art Troupe of Zhejiang University, took the stage, mesmerizing the audience with asian music, dance, and martial arts.
Both american and international students collaborated on the event, from making the festival history video, to manning the backstage as theater crew, to presenting student performances, making decorations, and manning activity tables. The festival was a wonderful way to make The Gilbert School International Program students feel welcome and
for our school and wider community to embrace
the Chinese culture while teaching all of the guests about this wonderful Chinese tradition.
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