Moon Festival at Pacifica Square in Aurora seen as ‘bringing the community together’

For Mary Smart of Aurora, the sixth annual Moon Festival hosted Saturday by Pacifica Square in Aurora was a great event for the community.

“I think it’s great that this is a multi-cultural event and it helps bring people together,” Smart said as she waited in front of a stage area where a program was about to begin. “I know Aurora prides itself on its diversity, and this is another one of those things.”

Pacifica Square, an Asian-centric shopping and lifestyle center at the corner of Route 59 and New York Street, offered the five-hour event, which was co-hosted by the Windfall Group, Pacifica Square and the Global Friendship Exchange Foundation.

Visitors checked out various activities and more than 40 vendors, as well as food trucks and dining options at Pacifica Square’s food court and restaurants.

The festival marks one of Asia’s most widely observed holidays, a harvest celebration centered on family reunion and gratitude, and marked by the year’s fullest moon, traditionally celebrated with mooncakes and lanterns, event organizers said.

This year, the festival included cultural performances representing China, Japan, Korea and other countries across Asia, martial arts demonstrations, video game contests and the return of the fourth annual Ramen Race, a competitive ramen-eating challenge presented by Strings Ramen with more than $1,000 in cash and prizes.

Aurora resident Chris Loo, business development manager for the Windfall Group, said the fest usually draws more than 1,000 people when weather conditions are good.

“The Global Friendship Exchange Foundation, a non-profit group, are really the people putting this on,” Loo said. “Their mission is to promote cultural sharing and cultural awareness and basically try to help bridge different cultures and promote global friendship, along with understanding and peace.”

Loo said the history of the Moon Festival in Asia “has roots back when they were doing the farming … under a full moon during the harvest season.”

“That’s the original roots. It’s kind of like an Asian Thanksgiving, in a way, so communities would have big festivals together where they celebrate the whole harvest season,” he said. “For here, over at Pacifica Square, we’ve been doing this for years with vendors and food and special events.”

Faith Oludoyi of Aurora and her children came to check out the fest on Saturday.

“It’s a great multi-cultural event,” Oludoyi said.

Various service groups were part of the fest inside a tented area, including the Chinese American Women in Action group, where Jennifer Chen of Naperville spoke about the importance of Saturday’s event.

“Having grown up in Naperville – there’s a huge Asian community now compared to when I was growing up and having access to all these choices is amazing and bringing the community together to celebrate is great,” she said. “We never would have seen it a decade ago.”

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.