Paralympians Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival

Anchor:
As people across Chinese celebrate the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival which falls on Sunday, Paralympians from more than 140 countries and regions also enjoyed the celebration in Beijing. For many of them, it's a kind of brand-new experience. Our reporter XYee has the story.
Reporter:

"The bright moon rose upon the sea, everyone was enjoying this scene."

The famous verse written by a Chinese poet more than 1,000 years ago became the most popular Chinese sentence at the Paralympic Village on Sunday.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival in China is a festival for family reunion, as symbolized by the full moon of the night.

For many Paralympic members who are far away from their homes, it is the first time they heard about the festival, but the Chinese verse has exactly expressed their feelings.

Osmelier José Araujo Quijada is a physician for the Venezuelan Paralympic Team.

"This is the first time we will enjoy that festival. I can't celebrate with my family. My family is in Venezuela, my wife, one son and two daughters. And the moon, my wife likes the moon very much. I will try to prey for God, for my wife, for my son, for my daughter, for everyone, for peace."

The Mid-Autumn Festival is not complete without mooncakes. On Sunday, mooncakes of different flavors are served in the Paralympic Village. Osmelier also had a taste of the special Chinese cookie.

"It's delicious. It's very good. It's the first time that I eat that. I like it very much."

Besides sharing the mooncakes, various cultural activities are held inside the Paralympic village, such as learning Chinese calligraphy and watching traditional art show. At the entrance of the village, a red Chinese knot, a unique auspicious ornament represents good wishes, is distributed to every guest.

When Aikaterini Giannakopoulou from Greece heard the Chinese verse about the full moon, she quickly recalled a Greek lyric which is also devoted to the moon.

Aikaterini is deputy chef demission of the Greek Paralympic delegation. She listened to stories about the tradition of the festival with great interest. She said although there is no Moon Festival in Greece, the two countries do share a lot in common.

"We love the family too. We are all together. And there are many things we are the same, the Chinese people and the Greek people, because we love all the traditions and we keep them."

Outside the Paralympic Village, many Paralympians are still competing on this special day. Chen Jun is from the Chinese wheelchair rugby team. After a match with Japanese team, Chen expressed his sincere wishes to his mother.

"Thank her for taking care of me for so many years. I can't express my love to her in words. I just want to wish her a happy Mid-Autumn Day. Wish her happy and healthy."

XYee, CRI news.