A mooncake looks like a full moon in which for Chinese, it represents reunion and happiness. It clearly is not just a food for them.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival. It is celebrated every 15th day of the eighth month following the Chinese Lunar Calendar. A celebration with a long and amazing history and legend behind it. There is this story of the legend of Chang'e. It is said that there's a fairy maiden living on the moon with a lovely rabbit. On the night of the Mooncake festival, people will eat under the moon and believe that by worshipping the moon, Chang'e will grant their wishes. Started as time for the emperors to thank the moon for their harvest, now people mostly celebrate it as a reunion time for families. This is the second most important festival in China; the first is, of course, the Chinese New Year which celebration date also changes every year.
This year 2021, the Mooncake festival is on September 21 (Tuesday - TODAY) in which a lot of families in China gathered together as a yearly tradition and since there is a public holiday starting September 19 to 21 to celebrate this festival. People mostly gather at dinner outside their house to appreciate and thank the moon, make lanterns, eat mooncakes, and other normal things people do on festivals.
It is widely celebrated too aside from China, in Asian countries like Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, and Philippines. We celebrate the said festival, but unlike in China, it is not considered a public holiday. But some people, especially with Chinese descent in here, still celebrate it with lanterns, dragon dance, float parade, eating mooncakes, etc. A lot of varieties of mooncake can be seen to make them more attractive (different shapes, sizes, and color).
A quick look at how we did it last 2019, where we were having fun without wearing face masks around yet.
In our office, we have this tradition too in celebrating Chinese festivals. Our bosses are of Chinese descent that's why we also celebrate this Mooncake Festival together in our office anually. We play this game called Pua Tiong Chiu or Bo Bing, a popular dice game brought to the Philippines by Chinese Filipinos who mostly came from Fujian Province, the place where this game came from. How the game works lies on one's luck in rolling the dice. One gets a turn to have a chance on rolling six dice in total, and hope that it will come out with the combination needed to win prizes. So it will really be a game of luck, since how the dice falls and what combination it will give is hard to manipulate, unless if you're an expert gambler hahaha.
This year, the winners received cash prizes. Players had a lot of chances to win.
Above shows our winning combinations. After throwing six dices, one can only hope that it shows a winning result, if not, then move on to the next player. There will only be a limit as to how many people can claim the prize (ex. Only eighty times the group can win the 6th prize, more than that will give no prize anymore). So the higher the prize, the harder the combination.
We used a virtual dice app, which was shared via zoom and players were given a control to it on their turn.
But now that we鈥檙e on a pandemic and the case here in the Philippines is rising in an alarming rate, gatherings are not allowed. Restrictions are added now but people find ways. We held an online celebration of the Mooncake Festival and played the Dice Game with everyone. A lot of us won prizes and enjoyed the game today while strictly following health protocols. You can still have fun while being safe.
Luckily, a lot from our department won the game's major prizes hahaha. As shown in our prizes list, 2 winners can win 1,000 pesos each; and guess what, the two winners are our birthday girl (DP team of Miss Pat) and miss 
People around the globe are starting to send gifts during such festival via online too, maybe through money, stickers, and messages. People are now adapting to the new normal and are finding different ways just so the tradition won't end and pass by on a sad note
Such festival makes people and families be closer again and be reunited. A perfect time for people to escape the hassle and busy life in their workplace, school, projects and spend some quality time with their loved ones. An event that was once only celebrated to worship and thank the moon for all the blessings they receive, now turned out to be more meaningful.
To our Chinese friends out there, HAPPY MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL!! Let鈥檚 eat mooncakes all we want today, shall we? 馃構鉂わ笍
