Moon Festival Banquet

On the evening of 20th of September, a moon festival banquet was held at Fo Guang Shan South Island Tea House. The banquet was organized by Buddha's Light International Association South Island, together with Buddha's Light International Association South Island Young Adult Division as co-organisers.

150 guests, including locals of the Christchurch community, as well as people from the Chinese community, attended the banquet.

Distinguished guests included New Zealand National MP Nicky Wagner and Christchurch City Councillor Helen Broughton, as well as North Island BLIA president Peter Young, elected incoming president Cai Su-fen and Chapter president Wang Qiu Xing who specially flew down from Auckland to attend the banquet.

FGS South Island Temple's Venerable Abbess Manshin welcomed all the guests by sharing a few words. Abbess explained that the moon festival is a time when family and friends gather, and in doing so, just like the round full moon, everyone is complete. Abbess continued by extending the significance of the moon festival by wishing that everyone will be impartial in wisdom, merits, life and spirit, and that everyone is content and abundant.

BLIA members presented 12 delicious dishes to the guests and YAD organized over 10 spectacular performances, including a solo singer, a choir, jazz dance, ballet, hip-hop, break-dance and a traditional Chinese instrumental with the “Gu Zhen”, which received praise and applause.

The final collection of performances by YAD spiced up the evening, with the youth performing Fo Guang hand gestures and songs, and were joined by the distinguished guests who enthusiastically sang along and followed the hand gestures. Evidently, both performers and guests were left with a collective feeling of content and happiness.

MP Nicky Wagner praised the FGS community on the way in which the young and old worked closely together. She continued by explaining that in FGS, three generations, namely young, middle and old, collaborate to organize and conduct the many kinds of cultural events and activities.

She also stressed that the quality standards of the results yielded from the cultural events and activities conducted by FGS are not an easy feat.

Account by Sheng Han Lim