Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Gong Xi Fa Cai
(Mandarin)
Kiong Hee Huat Chay
(Hokkien)
Kung Hei Fat Choi
(Cantonese)

In whatever dialect our fellow Filipino-Chinese pronounce these four Chinese characters, these words automatically brings us to our minds that it's the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival.

For those who don't know much about the meaning of these four-charactered greeting, it literally means:

"Congratulations and Be Prosperous"

Others greet us in another Chinese greeting:

Xin Nian Kuai Le
(Mandarin)
Sin Ni'n Khuai Lok
(Hokkien)
San Niin Faai Lok
(Cantonese)

in which it means

"Happy New Year".

For the Pinoys, we join them in celebrating the Chinese New Year by joining in their Lion and Dragon Dances, eating "Tikoy" ("sweet cake") or "Nian Gao" ("year cake"), the white, sticky and sweet pastry made from glutinous rice that symbolizes "strong and sweet bonds with the family" or "every year higher and higher", giving "Ang Pao" or "Hong Bao", the red envelope stuffed with money to bring prosperity into the New Year and many more. We give importance to this event as a way of respecting Chinese culture, which has influenced us for hundreds of years back, way before the Spanish colonizers came in.

Being raised in a Chinese school (but with a Filipino majority), I always look back in the days whenever our Chinese teachers taught us a few of the many traditions the Filipino-Chinese have done for years. We were taught how to use chopsticks, experience tasting Tikoy, Mah-Chang (glutinous rice with bits of meat, wrapped in leaves like the Filipino delicacy, the "suman"), Bakkwa/Rougan (salty-sweet dried meat; we experienced tasting it after watching the Singaporean film I Not Stupid (2002) .), taught how to bow as a respectful greeting to fellow Chinese or any other East Asian (Japanese, Korean, etc.), and many other forms of manners in the Chinese culture. Chinese culture is complex, but very dynamic and colourful. With this influence, I manage to blend it with our own way of living.

In this Chinese New Year, I wish that I will live a happy but prosperous life as I continue my journey through UP Mindanao. I know that God will continue to shower me with His wonderful blessings so that I can share these with them, too.

God Bless You and Have a Prosperous Life.



KENNETH

---

---