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- Posted September 29, 2012 by
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The Moon and the Lucky Dice
Today, the Chinese all over the world celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, more popularly known to us as the Mooncake Festival. Although this celebration has evolved into many forms through the generations, the festival originated from the admiration of the moon at the end of the autumn harvest season and wishes for another lucky year. It is commonly believed that the moon brings good luck.
As such, one of the popular traditions among many including moon watching while eating mooncakes, basically round shaped pastries with sweet red bean or lotus paste inside.
But for Filipino-Chinese folks whose ancestors mostly came from Xiamen, there's more to the Mooncake Festival than just the moon and mooncakes. During this season, our family would usually play the Mooncake Dice Game, which I later found out is actually quite unique to us as it is not practiced by other Chinese folks from other countries. This is because the game actually originated in a small part of China called Xiamen, where the game was used to keep the soldiers from being homesick when they had to serve their country during one of the most important family holidays in China. Soldiers basically played for the biggest mooncake by getting the highest rank using a combination of 6 pieces of dice thrown inside a bowl; therefore, sometimes referred to as mooncake gambling. The tradition was then passed on to the descendants of the Chinese from this part of China.
Today, we can still hear the rattling of the dice in the homes of overseas Filipino-Chinese families like us who still play this game despite the fact that it has greatly evolved. We still play for mooncakes but it is now greatly supplemented by more modern things like food, toys, household items, and sometimes, even some cash - something to make it more interesting, especially for the kids! And because we are mostly city folks, we no longer go outdoors to watch the moon nor really relate to the autumn harvest. But one thing has never changed -- the belief that the moon brings good luck and thus, whoever gets the highest rank with the set of dice will not only win the biggest mooncake and great prizes, but also have very good luck the coming year - children will excel in school, single folks will find love, financial prosperity and abundance will shower you, and so on.
1st photo - Jumping Dice
2nd photo - Dice Game now includes both traditional mooncake and modern prizes
3rd photo - Mini Mooncakes
As such, one of the popular traditions among many including moon watching while eating mooncakes, basically round shaped pastries with sweet red bean or lotus paste inside.
But for Filipino-Chinese folks whose ancestors mostly came from Xiamen, there's more to the Mooncake Festival than just the moon and mooncakes. During this season, our family would usually play the Mooncake Dice Game, which I later found out is actually quite unique to us as it is not practiced by other Chinese folks from other countries. This is because the game actually originated in a small part of China called Xiamen, where the game was used to keep the soldiers from being homesick when they had to serve their country during one of the most important family holidays in China. Soldiers basically played for the biggest mooncake by getting the highest rank using a combination of 6 pieces of dice thrown inside a bowl; therefore, sometimes referred to as mooncake gambling. The tradition was then passed on to the descendants of the Chinese from this part of China.
Today, we can still hear the rattling of the dice in the homes of overseas Filipino-Chinese families like us who still play this game despite the fact that it has greatly evolved. We still play for mooncakes but it is now greatly supplemented by more modern things like food, toys, household items, and sometimes, even some cash - something to make it more interesting, especially for the kids! And because we are mostly city folks, we no longer go outdoors to watch the moon nor really relate to the autumn harvest. But one thing has never changed -- the belief that the moon brings good luck and thus, whoever gets the highest rank with the set of dice will not only win the biggest mooncake and great prizes, but also have very good luck the coming year - children will excel in school, single folks will find love, financial prosperity and abundance will shower you, and so on.
1st photo - Jumping Dice
2nd photo - Dice Game now includes both traditional mooncake and modern prizes
3rd photo - Mini Mooncakes
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