When my family of Chinese and Korean heritage could not find a community initiatives near our neighborhood to celebrate a large Asian holiday called Mid-Autumn Festival, we looked into organizing our own so that we may share this special occasion with our community.
After receiving funding, we promoted the event through UBC media sources (UNA newsletter, UBC events) and sharing with colleagues as well as friends. The turn out was approximately 30 people, with a mix of toddlers, elementary aged and adults at different points in life. There were four story sessions – Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin – and crafts.
I believe this event increased awareness of different cultures and their values through hearing stories and doing crafts related to different countries. While it was a drop in event, most participants stayed for the entire event! It was also a space for participants to interact and have a shared experience while doing crafts together and gathering to hear the stories together. It was a beautiful sight to see children sitting together on the storytime mat, while adults congregated together on the surrounding chairs.
I was concerned this event may be too child-oriented but with a good craft choice and having some truly all-age friendly aspects made the event feel more all-age rather than a children event. For example, the paper lantern craft involved repurposing adult colouring sheet and the raffle was for mooncake which are sized for sharing among the family rather than individual. It was very neat seeing people of different generations and culture enjoying a shared experience together.
I did not realize it was a lot of set up and clean up to be done by one person. Thankfully, three storytellers became ad hoc event volunteers and helped with set up and clean up.
