{"id":11268,"date":"2016-12-28T12:08:28","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T04:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/?p=11268"},"modified":"2021-12-31T17:45:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T09:45:31","slug":"12-new-years-traditions-and-superstitions-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/2016\/12\/28\/12-new-years-traditions-and-superstitions-in-the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"12 New Year Traditions and Superstitions in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated as of Dec 31, 2021.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the many words that would describe the Filipino culture is \u201csuperstitious.\u201d No matter what the occasion is, people always have certain traditions that, they believe, would bring them good luck and prosperity.<\/p>\n

New Year\u2019s Eve and New Year\u2019s Day are just two of these occasions, and for so many years now, people have religiously maintained this tradition to welcome the coming year with more optimism and hope for prosperity and happiness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ridiculous as these beliefs may sound, Filipinos would claim that there\u2019s no harm in believing in superstitions and that maybe, it just might work and give them a better year ahead.<\/p>\n

From the 12 fruits served during New Year\u2019s Eve to the kids jumping as the clock strikes midnight, the Philippine Primer gives you a rundown of the most common superstitions and New Year\u2019s traditions observed by Filipinos:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t clean your house on New Year\u2019s Day<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Filipinos would usually do all the cleaning and the throwing away of unused stuff in the days leading to January 1st\u00a0but never on New Year\u2019s Day itself. They believe that sweeping and cleaning the house during the start of the year would \u201csweep\u201d away from the good fortune that came in during New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

Make loud noises to welcome the year<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lighting up firecrackers and fireworks is not only done to bring a colorful start to the year. Filipinos also do it to scare and drive away from the evil spirits. For some who\u2019d want a safer alternative to maintain this tradition, they use trumpets, car honks, loud music\u2013basically anything that makes noise\u2013and blast them as loud as they could as the clock strikes midnight.<\/p>\n

Turn on all the lights at home<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Filipinos believe that keeping all the lights at home on during New Year\u2019s Eve would lead them to have a better and brighter year ahead.<\/p>\n

Keep the doors and the windows open during New Year\u2019s Eve<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In anticipation of the year, families keep their windows and their doors widely open during New Year\u2019s Eve. They believe that by doing so, the bad energy and bad luck will leave, and the good energy will be coming and flowing in the house.<\/p>\n

Wear polka-dotted clothes for good luck<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Polka dots symbolize coins which, in turn, symbolize good fortune. Wearing garments with these patterns is said to bring money and good fortune to whoever wears them.<\/p>\n

Keep coins in pockets<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While waiting for the new year to start, people usually keep their pockets filled with coins, jiggling them as soon as midnight comes. They believe that doing so will attract good fortune for the year. They also scatter coins in various parts of the house so the fortune and the money will spread all over.<\/p>\n

Jump to be taller<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As soon as the clock strikes midnight, seeing kids and adults jumping as high as they could is no new sight. Filipinos have this belief that jumping as the new year comes will get them to grow taller.<\/p>\n

Every dinner table must have 12 rounds of fruits<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It is a must for every family to have 12 kinds of round fruits during their media noche. <\/em>They believe that doing so will give them good luck and good fortune for all 12 months of the year. This is the reason why as soon as the last days of the year arrive, everyone rushes to buy all kinds of round fruits\u2013from the lychees to the biggest watermelons.<\/p>\n

No chicken or fish should be served at the media noche <\/em>or the New Year\u2019s day banquet<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chickens and fishes symbolize scarcity, so it\u2019s definitely a no-no for anyone to be serving these at a dinner table during the first day of the year. People believe that doing this will also bring scarcity and bad luck to their lives.<\/p>\n

There should always be sticky rice on every feast<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Especially during family gatherings, delicacies made of glutinous or sticky rice (malagkit<\/em>) like biko <\/em>should be served. Doing this would maintain the \u201cstickiness\u201d or the unity of the family, and so the good fortune will \u201cstick\u201d throughout the year.<\/p>\n

Eating\u00a0pancit<\/em> for long life<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Serving and eating pancit <\/em>or noodles would bring long life to the members of the family, and this is the reason why this dish has always been a staple in various celebrations \u2013 may it be during New Year\u2019s or during birthdays.<\/p>\n

Everyone gathers for the media noche<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The media noche <\/em>is the New Year\u2019s Eve version of Christmas\u2019 Noche Buena. <\/em>It\u2019s when the family gathers and dines together in celebration of the coming of the New Year. \u00a0This usually happens after everyone is done lighting up their firecrackers and observing the traditions they usually do during this holiday.<\/p>\n

\n

Source: Tagalog Lang<\/a>, \u00a0Trek Effect<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philippine Primer gives you a rundown of the most common superstitions and traditions observed by Filipinos every New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[15435,1163,445,68,1628,1474,1629,982,1409,119,1627,1593],"class_list":["post-11268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-listicle","tag-15435","tag-culture","tag-filipino","tag-food","tag-fortune","tag-local","tag-luck","tag-new-year","tag-new-years-eve","tag-philippines","tag-superstition","tag-tradition"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2016\/12\/new-year_pexel.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11268"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63901,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions\/63901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}