Online blessing for Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day of the Confucius Institute at the University of Latvia

2020 is a special year. Under the epidemic situation, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day reunion brought some beautiful charm to people. On October 1, 2020, the Adult Primary Class of the Confucius Institute at the University of Latvia   launched a different Chinese class. After learning language knowledge, students came to the cultural class. Zhubofan, the Chinese teacher, first introduced the Mid-Autumn Festival to the students using multimedia courseware and colorful videos. Through the animation videos, students learned about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, “Hou Yi shooting the sun”, “Chang’e flies to the moon”, which also makes everyone interested in Chinese mythology. Then, the students saw the Chinese custom of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival and saw moon cakes. Some students even expressed that they wanted to try to make moon cakes by themselves after class. After that, Ms. Zhu played a video on how foreigners spend the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. The content of the video is very interesting but also profound. After reading it, the students had a further understanding of the significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In addition to the Mid Autumn Festival, the students also learned about the National Day in China. Students with teacher watched the song video “My People,My Country”together. Although students can not fully understand the meaning of the lyrics, through the emotional expression of the Chinese people and the simple explanation of the teacher, the students also realized the significance of the country to the Chinese.

At the end of the class, the students enthusiastically recorded their wishes to China with their teacher: “Happy Birthday to China, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!”.

2020年是特殊的一年，在疫情下，中秋国庆喜相逢倒给人们带来了一些美满的韵味。2020年10月1日，拉脱维亚大学孔子学院本部成人初级班也展开了一节不一样的中文课。在学习完语言知识后，同学们来到了文化课堂。汉语教师朱柏帆利用多媒体课件以及丰富多彩的视频首先像同学们介绍了中秋节。通过动画视频，同学们了解了中秋节的起源，后羿射日、嫦娥奔月，也让大家对中国神话产生了兴趣。接着，同学们看到了中国人庆祝中秋的习俗，看到了月饼，甚至有同学表示想课下尝试自己制作月饼。之后，朱老师播放了外国人在中国如何过中秋节的视频，视频内容很有趣但同时也富有深意，同学们看完之后对中秋节的意义也有了进一步理解。

除了中秋节之外，同学们还了解到了中国的国庆节。师生一同观看《我和我的祖国》歌曲视频，虽然学生不能完全听懂歌词的含义，但通过视频里中国人民的情绪表达以及老师的简单解说，同学们也体会到了国家对中国人的意义。

在课堂的最后，同学们热情地与朱老师一起录制了对中国的祝福“祝中国生日快乐，中秋节快乐！”。