Dice Game For Moon Festival

!±8± Dice Game For Moon Festival

Call upon your family, aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, cousins nth removed, etc. etc. This year, the Moon Festival will be a little more fun.

Try this dice game with the family. This game of chance is commonly played in Xiamen, and some Chinese communities throughout Asia, during the Moon Festival.
Prizes are at stake to add to the family camaraderie.
Read below to see the instructions.

Special thanks to Sean of "To the Tale, and Other Such Concerns Blog", for the detailed description of the game.

Materials
You will need:

6 pieces dice, preferably numbers 1 and 4 in red, other numbers in black

Wide-mouthed bowl
Prizes, prizes, prizes. You still have time to solicit...
Assortment of quietly smiling, or rambunctious, or dancing family members and friends on Moon Festival night. Grandma, Grandpa, and little cousins included

Object of the Game:

To get as much prizes by throwing the dice and getting prescribed number combinations.

Procedure:

Preparations before Moon Festival:
1. Look for a wide mouthed bowl.
2. Prepare 6 dice with number 1 and 4 in red. If you can only find dice with only the number 1 in red, improvise for number 4.
3. Solicit for prizes among family.
4. Prepare the following prizes
o 32 pcs 6th place prizes
o 16 pcs 5th place prizes
o 8 pcs 4th places prizes
o 4 pcs 3rd place prizes
o 2 pcs 2nd place prizes
o 1 pc 1st place prize
Value of prizes may vary. May be simple or extravagant. Others raffle off moon cake, candies, gadgets, ChildBook gift certificates (ehem:-) ... Be creative.

Game Proper on Moon Festival night:

5. Place wide-mouthed bowl on a table. Gather everybody around the table. Appoint the first player.
6. First player throws all 6 dice into the bowl. Take note of the numbers face-up on the dice.
7. Certain combination of numbers on the dice entitles the player to a prize. See combinations and corresponding prizes below.
8. Pass the bowl to the next person. S/he will also throw the dice and get a prize if certain number combinations land face up on the dice. Etc. etc. until all the prizes run out.

Special rules:

- If any of the dice fall outside the bowl, you lose your turn for that round.
- If all the prizes for a given configuration have run out, then future appearances of that configuration win no further prizes.
- "Ultimate throw" - The best combination is composed of either 6 fours, or 6 ones. If you get this combination, you will ALL prizes, even those already won. Some families just give the 1st prize to ensure everybody gets to take home a prize.
- Other rules you can make up as you go along as long as it is fair and everybody gets to have fun.

Dice combinations and corresponding prizes:

The game is actually primarily based on occurrences of the "4" value -- the more fours you roll, the better the prize.

Sixth-place prizes - Awarded to people who roll 1 four

Fifth-place prizes - Awarded to people who roll 2 fours:

Fourth-place prizes - Awarded to people who roll 3 fours:

Third-place prizes - Awarded to people who roll 4 of any number except four:

Second-place prizes - Awarded to people who roll either a full sequence of all six numbers, or 3 of one number and 3 of another:

And finally, the first-place prize (zhungyuan) is given to the lucky soul who manages to roll four fours, five of any single number, or better:

Have fun and good fortune on Moon Festival!

Source: "Of Dice and Moon Cakes" by Sean - http://lengthofwords.blogspot.com/2006/10/of-dice-and-mooncakes.html