Today, JASA co-sponsored the Moon Festival with TASA, ThSA, KSA, VSA, CSA, and KPL.
JASA performed a skit based on this Japanese tale about the moon:
猿、狐、兎の3匹が、力尽きて倒れている老人に出逢った。3匹は老人を助けようと考えた。猿は木の実を集め、狐は川から魚を捕り、それぞれ老人に食料として与えた。しかし兎だけは、どんなに苦労しても何も採ってくることができなかった。
自分の非力さを嘆いた兎は、何とか老人を助けたいと考えた挙句、猿と狐に頼んで火を焚いてもらい、自らの身を食料として捧げるべく、火の中へ飛び込んだ。
その姿を見た老人は、帝釈天としての正体を現し、兎の捨て身の慈悲行を後世まで伝えるため、兎を月へと昇らせた。月に見える兎の姿の周囲に煙状の影が見えるのは、兎が自らの身を焼いた際の煙だという。
Long long ago, there was three friends; a monkey, a fox, and a rabbit. One day they found an old man lying exhausted on the ground. The three friends decided they would try to help the old man. The monkey gathered fruit from the trees. The fox caught fish from the river. They gave these as food to the old man. Only the rabbit, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't gather anything. Grieving over her powerlessness, the rabbit finally thought of something to help the old man. She asked the monkey and the fox to make a fire, and offering her own life as food, she jumped into the fire. Seeing that scene, the old man revealed his identity to be Taishakuten (Buddhist deity). In order to show the future of Earth the selflessness of the rabbit, he ascended the rabbit to the moon. This is why on the moon you can see the firgure of a rabbit. Around it is a smoke-like shadow, which is the smoke from the rabbit who baked himself.
At the JASA table we had a game where you would throw a stuffed rabbit into our hand made moon to win candy prizes!
Today Japanese American Student Union (JASU) hosted the JASU Formal at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza in DC (http://www.hamiltonhoteldc.com/).
