Each year on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, people in China celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Since the U.S. uses the Gregorian calendar, this festival happens in September or October.

The Chinese Student and Scholar Association will share this piece of their culture with Eastern students at 6 p.m. Friday in the basement of Andrews Hall.

Zoey Zhang, the vice president of the CSSA and a graduate student studying clinical psychology, said the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family to come together for dinner, to eat moon cake and to enjoy the view of the full moon.

A moon cake is a dessert or savory cake with meat made especially for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

People in the northern provinces of China usually eat sweet moon cake, Zhang said.

Raine Zhu, the secretary of the CSSA and a senior graphic design major, is from a southern province of China.

“I like the meat kind (of moon cakes),” Zhu said. “In my hometown, people always like the sweet kind. I think it is too sweet.”

Zhang said the first thing she thinks of when she hears Mid-Autumn Festival is definitely moon cake.

Those at the festival on Friday can make their own moon cake.

They will also play a version of the game Telephone, where Chinese international students will alternate with non-Chinese students in a line, Zhang said. Each person will whisper a word in the next person’s ear, whether it be in Chinese or English.

“We will see what the last (person) says,” Zhang said. “It will be funny.”

Zhang said the CSSA has never had students not from the club at the Mid-Autumn Festival, but this year all are welcome to attend.

The Chinese students are at Eastern and will celebrate not only for themselves, but to share their cultures with students who are interested, she said.

“Eastern is part of our family now,” Zhang said. “We live here, we’ve been here every day, so it is a different way to celebrate with family, I think.”

“It is a direct way to learn Chinese culture from the Chinese,” Zhang said. “Also, it is part of our tradition. It is not something you can find on Google.”

She said the Mid-Autumn Festival is something Chinese people have celebrated for thousands of years.

“It’s part of who we are,” Zhang said.

Kennedy Nolen can be reached at 581-2812 or kdnolen@eiu.edu.