Filipino-Chinese Relations: Chinese New Year 2016

Filipinos and Chinese have known each other even before the arrival of the Spaniards. We have traded with them for hundreds of years, and have had them in our country ever since. While most of our countrymen bear a Spanish surname, it’s hard to find a Filipino without a tiny bit of Chinese blood. It should not come as a surprise that Filipinos join the Chinese in celebrating Chinese New Year.

 

GONG XI FA CAI!

 

Set on February 8, Chinese New Year celebrations are done as close as possible to how the Chinese community does it. Dragon and lion dances, wearing red, a bowl of 12 round fruits, as well as the custom of giving away tikoy, a cake made from glutinous rice. Chinese New Year is such a momentous occasion that it has even been declared as a special non-working holiday since President Benigno Aquino assumed office in 2010. Expect multiple sales and Chinese New Year specials in malls around the country once Feb. 8 hits.

More than the celebrations, Filipinos tend to focus on what the arrival of Chinese New Year brings: a change in one’s fortune. Filipinos and Chinese are highly superstitious, and have since believed in how the rest of their year would be like with the changing of the Chinese calendar. Forecasts for how your year will go will be the talk of the town, with Filipinos and Chinese interacting in many ways to ensure success for the year ahead.

It is important that we keep our relationship with our Chinese brothers in good terms, as it is said that they make up a considerable percentage in the population of the country. They are part of what made the Philippines unique, known to be a home to many different groups of people, sharing a community of varied cultures.

 

With a report from: Arvee Gomez
Photo courtesy of: poporetto.deviantart.com