Mooncake Festival Dice Game

This weekend I played the dice game at two different occasions. One was with 明勝武術會 (Ming Sheng Wushu Association) held at Uno Seafood Wharf Restaurant last Friday at dinnertime. The other was with 旅菲南海九江同鄉會, our Cantonese family association, held at Crown Prince Seafood Restaurant today at lunch. Funny thing was these restaurants are just adjacent each other along Escolta Street near our place in Manila.

In both meals, creatures of the sea were mostly served, making my tummy happy. There were repeat items such as the suahe (river shrimps), the noodles we can’t veer away from and buchi—a rice cake made from sweet rice flour that is molded into shape with a sweet bean paste filling and sesame seed coating, which is absolutely one of my favorite desserts.

Here are the pictures of the food:

From Ming Sheng:

From Nam Hoi:

I will not further elaborate on each dish because this post is not meant to be a food or restaurant review but a sharing of the Mooncake Festival’s dice game.

Mooncake Festival (中秋節) is one of the most celebrated events in the Chinese calendar. The moon is at its fullest and roundest at this time. Family and friends gather to gaze at the moon, feast, eat mooncakes together and play the dice game.

Game of Luck Chance

The mooncake dice game or Pua Tiong Chiu was actually invented by pirate-cum-patriot Koxinga in Fujian, China to keep his homesick troops occupied. The tradition of playing this fun-filled game has been passed down to several generations. During the mid-autumn festival which happens in September, Chinese families compete for mooncakes by throwing six mahjong dices into a large porcelain bowl to win prizes.

When you have one four dots, you take home the smallest prize. When you have two of these four dots out of the six dices, you get the next smallest prize. Respectively, you attain the medium prize when you have three four dots. You become the winner when you get the four four red dots or five dice of the same kind regardless if it’s four dots or not. Special prizes (e.g. next to the jackpot prize) can be claimed when you get the dices 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or when you get four dices of the same kind.

People say that when preparation meets opportunity, luck happens. But with this game, you can’t really prepare and practice to get a good result of the dice combinations. All you can have are chances. You can try to throw with different styles, if you believe certain fancy dice-throwing techniques and hand movements will make you “luckier”. Just make sure there is no dice that bounces out of the bowl because by so you’ll lose a turn. Click here to know more about how to play the dice game.

In traditional Chinese homes, prizes offered are cookies and mooncakes. In modern settings and among the elite, there are technical gadgets and appliances that are given away. In our case, mooncakes were out of sight; prizes were all snacks and money! I won one Soyfresh cappuccino-flavored soy milk, one Soyfresh chocolate soy milk, bread pan and PHp 360 after about two hours of playing in each game. ♥

About Rochkirstin Santos-Sioco

Health and technology freak. Food and lifestyle blogger with a large appetite for food and travel.