Banquet
Orange County's 15th Annual Moon Festival Banquet Delights All
Orange County held our 15th Annual Moon Festival Banquet on September 18. Keeping with tradition, the event was held at Ten Ten Seafood Restaurant in Artesia.
The evening started off with an icebreaker activity, the Moon Festival Legends Game. Each participant received a sheet about the legends and were tasked with finding images related to the legends, e.g. 10 suns, Chang-e, Hou-yi etc. Each family was given an envelope of images to hand out and the kids had to run around the room collecting images from other banquet attendees.
As always, everyone enjoyed the delicious menu of egg drop soup, honey walnut shrimp, beef and snow peas, tofu and mushrooms, cashew chicken, house lo mein, yang chow rice, and of course, moon cakes. Dinner was followed by a variety of entertaining and education performances:
- Martial Drum: Performer Arthur Chen and instructor Rachael Sysiong
- Beijing Opera Master: Kevin Chai
- Lion Dance Instruction: Jonathan Wong
All attendees had the opportunity to try out the instruments and costumes and learn some of the routines first hand. The evening ended with prizes for the kids - all went home with an adorable stuffed xiong mao, hou zi, tu zi or other animal.
Many thanks to organizers Susan Tschabrun and Debbie Kistler, and the group of volunteers who helped make this banquet a success! Copy and photos for this post contributed by Patty Uy and Jenifer Weigand.
Orange County's Annual Moon Festival Shines in 2010
This autumn marked another memorable Moon Festival banquet in Orange County. The event was once again held at Ten Ten Seafood Restaurant in Artesia. Everyone enjoyed the delicious food and interactive cultural entertainment.
Co-organizer Susan Tschabrun introduced a mooncake dice game from Fujian province. The game originated about 350 years ago by a Chinese general trying to stave off homesickness among his troops during this family-centric holiday. The total of 63 prizes, based on various dice combinations, was named after the six titles earned in the imperial civil service exam. Mooncake Dice Game proved to be a big hit with all participants and will surely become part of our annual tradition.
Year of the Tiger Banquets a Big Success
The Year of the Tiger roared into town with two banquets for FCC SoCal members and their guests on Feb 6th and 27th. Our annual tradition of gathering to celebrate and re-connect continued for its 13th year, though this time with a new committee at the helm. Many thanks to Jeri, Susan and Lee for making this a favorite event for so many years and giving the new bunch an easy template to follow.
Though the first banquet was smaller than in recent years with about 250 people, it was lovely to have a bit more elbow room and the opportunity to mingle with friends and actually hear them. The Lion Dance topped off the evening with a particularly thrilling performance with lots of interaction with the kids. Their high voltage energy led us all onto the bubble wrap for the loud dance of joy. Everyone had a huge grin on their faces watching the kids let loose with glee.
Chinese New Year Banquets - Save the Dates!
UPDATE: Event info now posted here (1st banquet) and here (2nd banquet).
Planning for Chinese New Year festivities is underway and we are hard at work to ensure that the ever-popular FCC-SoCal Chinese New Year tradition continues to be a favorite for all!
We are holding twin banquets on the first and last Saturdays in February – the 6th and the 27th. Registration materials will be emailed out by the first of the year. Chinese New Year falls on February 14th and the Golden Dragon Parade will be on February 20th.
Orange County’s 12th Annual Moon Festival Banquet
A fun time was had by all at Orange County’s 12th annual Moon Festival Banquet on October 4 held at the Ten Ten Seafood Restaurant in Artesia. To start off the event, families played a game in which every guest had a picture of their Chinese zodiac animal pinned to their back, and children ran about the large dining room trying to count up all the roosters, rats, dragons, etc. to win the grand prize, a giant stuffed panda. Perhaps it was predictable that pigs represented the largest group that turned out for the banquet, but there was a scattering of every type of animal, and kids had a great time trying to count them all up.
Lunar New Year Events
FCC-SoCal is delighted to welcome its new 2012 New Year Event Committee Co-Chairs: Mike and Kim Barrett, Karen Drew and Alice Goldstone. Information about this year's event can be found here.