Time flies and Feb. 8, an official holiday, marks the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year — the Year of the Fire Monkey.
Since Filipinos have adapted this custom, they are used to the greeting Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Mandarin).
Translated literally, it means “Wishing you enlarge your wealth”
To further illustrate, Gong Xi means “wishing/blessing”; Fa means “enlarge(ment)“; Chai means ”wealth”.
So the literal translation is that you wish someone will become very rich, but the phrase is generally used as Happy New Year.
The dragon dance and lion dance are often performed during Chinese New Year, believed to bring good luck and happiness to all people.
The Mary Immaculate Parish will hold a Chinese mass for the occasion, affirming the assimilation of the local Filipino Chinese community in all aspects of community life.
The local Filipino-Chinese are mostly family business owners,, mostly small or medium enterprises, with a few big entrepreneurs who have expanded nationally or with links to big business.
Most of them attribute their success in business to frugality and hard work, Confucian values and their traditional Chinese customs and traditions.
Admittedly, there have been cultural variations, highly-evident during festivals such as the Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Chinese Filipinos have developed unique customs pertaining to weddings, birthdays, and funerary rituals.
Wedding traditions of Chinese Filipinos, regardless of religious persuasion, usually involve the identification of the dates of supplication/pamamanhikan (kiu-hun), engagement (ting-hun), and wedding (kan-chhiu) adopted from Filipino customs, through feng shui based on the birthdates of the couple, as well as of their parents and grandparents, and grand receptions.
Birthday traditions involve large banquet receptions, always featuring noodles and round-shaped desserts. All the relatives of the birthday celebrator are expected to wear red clothing to symbolize respect for the celebrator. The wearing of clothes with dark hues is forbidden and considered bad luck.
During the reception, relatives offer ang paos (red packets containing money) to the birthday celebrator.
Births of babies are not celebrated, and they are usually given pet names, which he keeps until he reaches first year of age.
First birthdays are celebrated with much pomp and pageantry, and grand receptions are hosted by the child’s paternal grandparents.
Funerary traditions of Chinese Filipinos mirror those found in Fujian. A unique tradition of many Chinese Filipino families is the hiring of professional mourners which is alleged to hasten the ascent of a dead relative’s soul into Heaven.
This belief particularly mirrors the merger of traditional Chinese beliefs with the Catholic religion.
These practices are handed down from generation to generation, with much reverence to the older members of the family, as reservoir of knowledge and wisdom.
When people greet you with Gong Hey Fat Choy (Cantonese) or Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) during the Chinese New Year, what do you say?
Simply respond with the same phrase they used. It means “Wishing you a prosperous year, too.”
Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone!
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