May is Asian Heritage Celebration month, but it’s being celebrated a month early at Eastern.

The Asian Cinema Organization, or ACO, organized a road trip to Champaign for the South Korean Comedy Film Festival and Workshop.

Students and those interested in going to can meet at noon or at 5 p.m. today in the south parking lot of Coleman Hall.

The Asian-American Association began planning events in June and asked students what they would be interested in seeing.

“We wanted more interesting events and we wanted to raise different topics, like being a minority student on campus,” said Julia Morss, senior English major.

“We want to make it a fun and educational event with students on campus. Getting the school more diverse, I think, is the key and how Asia relates to EIU.”

Morss is graduating this semester and said she will miss events like the film festival.

“These are events where I’m getting to learn more about the Asian community and expanding my knowledge, learning things I didn’t know before,” Morss said.

She said the idea for this particular event came from Jinhee Lee, the coordinator of Asian studies.

Students and faculty are a vital part to the events at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, she said.

“EIU student participants have proved to be one of the most enthusiastic and spirited partners in their outreach programs for the local community in central Illinois so far,” she said.

People learned of the event and signed up through word of mouth, ACO’s e-mail lists and Asian Heritage Month poster announcements.

Lee said students could learn more about Korea, for example, through the event and films.

“I hope students will get a sense of the similarities and differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’ through films,” Lee said.

Many attending this trip will also go to Urbana on Saturday to visit Japan House, at 2000 S. Lincoln Ave.

Japan House is a cultural house and students going will get the opportunity to participate in a tea ceremony.

Japan House provides an appreciation of Japanese cultural concepts with its gardens and affluent saturation of Japanese culture.

Some things visitors can do when attending is learn about Japanese art, attend the tea ceremony, learn calligraphy, go to the Kabuki theater or learn Ikebana, which is flower arranging.

“Visitors can learn about another culture and are more open to it,” said Cynthia Voelkl, assistant director of Japan House. “There are so many horrible things going on in the world and the Japan House helps people achieve peace and become more open to other cultures.”