For Mary Smart of Aurora, the sixth annual Moon Festival hosted by Pacifica Square on the city’s far East Side Saturday 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.”
Aurora’s Asian-centric shopping and lifestyle center Pacifica Square, at the corner of Route 59 and New York Street, offered the five-hour celebration Saturday which was co-hosted by the Windfall Group, Pacifica Square and the Global Friendship Exchange Foundation.
Beginning at 2 p.m., visitors were able to check out various activities and more than 40 vendors, as well as food trucks and dining options at Pacifica Square’s own 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.
Features at the fest this year 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 has been offered at Pacifica Square since 2020 and 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.”
The fourth annual ramen-eating challenge, which pits individuals against one another in a fast-paced eating of a bowl of medium-spicy ramen, was back and featured three-time local champion Robert Choi, who was back to defend his title.
“We have an international influencer and food competitor, Raina Huang, who is flying in from the West Coast to compete against Choi,” Loo said. “She is hoping to take his title.”
Also competing were teams from Best Buy Aurora, Ninjacat Card Shop in Naperville, and representatives from the Hollywood Casino locations in Aurora and Joliet.
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Faith Oludoyi of Aurora and her children came to check out the fest on Saturday.
“It’s a great multi-cultural event,” Oludoyi said.
Faith’s daughter Temiyato, 9, already had a fistful of candy in her hand and said he was interested in finding some books as well as getting more sweets.
Various service groups were also 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.