I’m spending a few minutes away from my paper writing (no, not just thesis) to write a quick blog entry to fill the 11 days I haven’t written an entry, and the 15+ days I haven’t written a real blog entry.
Today is the celebration of 2 events. The annual Feb 14 Valentines Day, and the coincidental Chinese (Lunar) New Year. Being single, I’m not really celebrating Valentines Day. Usually, this “holiday” would be spent with my close girlfriends celebrating “Single Awareness Day” at some place, and last year it was spent at my good friend’s house making chocolates. We melted bars of chocolate and put them into really cute molds and gave them to friends for V-day. This year though, there are many things that need to be done so celebrating is not really an option.
For me and most of my Chinese/Chinese-Filipino friends though, I think this year is a lot different. Instead of celebrating Valentines on the 14th, most of us ended up spending it earlier like the 12th and 13th since the 14th will be spent with family members celebrating Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year. I remember CCTV mentioning something like it’s the 4770’s celebration of Lunar New Year. Awhile ago, CCTV9 was featuring a Lunar New Year celebration show and all oddly, I was laughing along with the hosts as they were speaking in Mandarin (which I understood….sort of). Living in a somewhat Chinese community, some fireworks were set-off around our neighborhood, though luckily there wasn’t much of it since it’s not a real holiday here in the Philippines anyway.
They should have really make Chinese New Year a holiday here. I can’t understand why Ramadan is a holiday here but Lunar New Year isn’t. Though a lot of people are saying that there aren’t a lot of Chinese here, I think statistics wise, that’s sort of wrong. Maybe there aren’t a lot of pure Chinese here, or people who look Chinese, but many people in the country have Chinese blood in them. What was it my prof mentioned before, something like there’s no such thing as a Pure Filipino since being Filipino itself is about being diverse.
Anyway, there are a heckload of Chinese here in the Philippines. Saw this entry on a site about lawmakers here considering Lunar New Year as a holiday. If Ramadan is a holiday, Lunar New Year should sure as heck get its own holiday too. Suddenly got me thinking though, there are probably too many holidays in the Philippines. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give Lunar New Year the same rights as Ramadan. Chinese have as much right to their own New Year. Other countries in the Asia Pacific make a big deal out of Lunar New Year, so why shouldn’t the Philippines do the same right?
A thought for me to consider personally… I could be spending Chinese New Year abroad next year. That’s if I’ll be in China (or HK/Taiwan) within the next few months for work.
Damn, am thinking too far ahead. Thesis needs a heck load of work more. 9 days left. What the heck.
