Second New Year
Multicultural countries celebrate more than one New Year, as we do in the Philippines, with two government-declared New Year holidays. One is based on the Gregorian Calendar, which is ushered in on Jan. 1, and the other is the Chinese New Year, which changes dates each year, combining lunar and solar calculations. This year’s Chinese New Year is today, Feb. 17.
The Chinese New Year was developed mainly for agrarian purposes, with dates named to mark, for example, the start of the seasons of spring (Spring Festival marks the Lunar New Year), summer, fall, and winter. There are many other special dates that are not related to the climate, for example, the Autumn Moon Festival. Then there’s Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Teacher’s Day (Confucius Day). I’m glad these are not officially declared holidays for the Philippines, or we’d end up with only a handful of workdays.
On the other hand, there are advantages to having multiple “new year’s days.” To name some of them:
The extra New Year allows time to buy more holiday gifts. Even during the Christmas holidays, I was apologizing to close friends that my gifts would be delayed until the Chinese New Year because my tight schedule didn’t allow time for shopping until January. My younger kids, made wise through the years, would answer, “That’s OK as long as we get ‘angpao’ (red envelopes with cash) twice.”
My gifts for close friends sometimes go out twice, when I can play the anthropologist. I like going to one of the Chinatowns that sell a variety of Chinese stuff. This year, I found, in one store small, colorful papier-mâché-like horses, which my grandsons loved.
Then there are the food items, which are filled with cultural symbolism. For example, you can buy “fish” made out of gelatin, the fish symbolizing prosperity. “Tikoy,” which has become Filipino, remains iconic for the Chinese; its stickiness symbolizes the close ties that should develop in the year ahead among relatives and friends. The tikoy has many variations now, including those that use local food items.
“Hopia,” originally meant for the Moon Festival that comes later in the year, is also sold in some stores for the Chinese New Year.
Of course, the Chinese New Year is a time to binge. Chinese restaurants are packed with lauriats or banquets, which are organized as well for birthdays, weddings, and other auspicious events. Make sure not to wear black, no matter how chic you think you look, because it is said to bring misfortune.
Wealthier hosts or sponsoring organizations will hire cultural troupes to perform a dragon dance (dragon year or not). Most times, the dragon dances are performed by non-Chinese Filipinos, but some of the Chinese-Filipino schools now have student cultural performers as well. The dances, complete with drums, are most entertaining, which include the dragons coming up to people and opening their huge mouths so you can throw in coins. I have noticed over the years that even non-Chinese companies sometimes invite the performing dragons.
Some temples also have youth groups that perform Chinese cultural presentations, as well as religious chanting.
Many Buddhist and Taoist temples organize vegetarian banquets right at the temple, together with religious rituals. Taoists offer rituals to change your “luck” for the year. If the year is not going to be very good for some people (depending on the animal zodiac sign), you can still have rituals performed to change the year’s prospects. Monks and nuns are on hand to provide advice—besides the prayers and chanting, feng shui advice is available as well.
Chinese New Year is a time for “merit-making.” Through donations of money, and food, which are then distributed to those in need, you also create merit for yourself, your family, and the community.
All these events actually help to preserve and propagate Chinese traditions, or rather, Chinese Filipino culture, with the presentations in Chinese (usually Mandarin), Filipino, and English.
It’s hard to say how many more years we’ll still have Chinese New Year celebrations. From the very young ages of the participants and the presence of more recent Chinese migrants from the mainland, I think we’ll continue to see these observances for some more years to come.
Happy second New Year!
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michael.tan@inquirer.net
