Moonlighting: mid-autumn festival luck for your car

The mid-autumn festival is a time to celebrate a full harvest and to offer thanksgiving. The custom is celebrated by ethnic Chinese in the Philippines, and it’s become popular among their Filipino friends as well.

What’s usually remembered about the festival are the mooncake and the dice game. The pastry’s round shape is of course symbolic of the full moon. The imprints on the mooncake are usually the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony. They may also have an image of the Lady Chang’e, a mythical figure who swallowed the elixir of immortality and flew to the moon. There’s also a legend of the Chinese using mooncakes to aid their revolution against the then-Mongolian rulers of China. Instructions for the revolt were hidden within the mooncake or on the outer imprint of the pastry.

The dice game is a folk game involving six dice. Throwing one or more of the four face, or getting four of the same number are desirable. The highest throw is usually all fours or all ones, marked in red on the dice. Four is usually considered unlucky, sounding like the word “death” in Chinese, but in this case the red color counters that to make it lucky. The probability of this is of course much lower than winning the lotto, and a player usually gets the top prize within a few minutes of play, particularly if there’s a lucky “God of Gamblers” character among them.

So how do Chinese and Filipinos specify or customize their cars to make them lucky? One is to choose a desirable color. Red and gold are considered lucky. Notice that Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi in the Philippines have been offering at least one red variant for each model for more than 30 years now (well, except for the L300 delivery van). Gold and yellow also symbolize good fortune.

Filipinos like to hang religious talismans in their car, such as rosaries and images of the Santo Niño. Chinese place a red cloth or paper as a good luck charm. And as our Chinese feng shui consultant friend advises, it’s always a wise practice to keep your car clean and free of clutter. Only then can you attract the good fortune. Also, always keep your cool and double or triple your patience when behind the wheel.