a Chinese New Year experience

The Chinese New Year is the most important of the holidays for the Chinese. It is
defined to be the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar.
Unlike the Christian New Year, which is based on a solar calendar, the Chinese
New Year is based on a traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar whose date indicates
both the moon phase and the time of the solar year an extra month is inserted every
few years. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls
on a different date each year.

This festivity is the time for family reunion, which is the most important part of the
Chinese New Year celebration.
People will normally visit relatives and friends, do some shopping, watch traditional
Chinese shows, launch fireworks, and plan for the coming year. The celebration will
sometimes be highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of heaven, earth,
the family ancestors and other gods.

Yesterday, Lunar Chinese new years eve, I decided to join Lawrence's
postal  heritage tour since its been quite a while(5 months since I last
had a walking tour around the Streets of Manila).



I drove alone, then my girlgoodfriend texted me, that she wanted to join me.
because she wanted to experience Chinatown up close. and so we went
together, we arrived late and missed the group.

We joined Lawrence Chan and the big tour group at Toho (Antiqua) then after
sitting for a while, my friend got all excited and requested that I bring her to
Chinatown and have late lunch there instead, so we decided to go ahead.

a view atop Ramada Manila Central 

we had  our late lunch at Ramada Manila Central.
then went to the streets of Ongpin together.

One of Binondo’s legends revolves around the venerated image of the Santo
Cristo de Longos. Along the main road of Manila’s Chinatown, a street-side
temple was built.  people come to burn joss sticks, do offerings, &
recite a prayer to the Sto. Cristo de Longos. I let her try it out. so she made
a wish. (I just wonder what it is)

after our lunch we took a last shot of Ramada , where she enjoyed the view
from above.

When you arrived at Binondo, you can see red and gold all over.
Many of these businesses are either food-related or shops catering
to special needs.

Manila’s Chinatown has become more tourist-friendly for the past few
years. and everywhere I go most of the greting I see are "kong hei fat choi"

I feel quite uncomfortable with the media using Kong Hei Fat Choi
I guess this error started when western press media copied it from the HK
papers & the Philippine English media just followed it without knowing.
there are so many Chinese cultural organizations in the Philippines but they
are not exerting effort to correct them.
"Kiong Hee Huat Chai" should have been used rather than "Kong Hei Fat Choi"
which is Cantonese.
The bad thing here is the majority of the local Chinese merchants, is not keen
on correcting anything cultural for the Filipinos,  just let wrong version prevail.
& Many things were erroneously learned by Filipinos, including a lot of matter
on Feng Shui.

last year I have blogged about my first Chinese new yr experience alone. this time
I want to share this with my my girlgoodfriend got overly excited to see for the first
time dragon and lion dance.

For those unfamiliar with the place, Chinatown may seem like a labyrinth of retail 

stores and other establishments. Instead of not knowing where to go and 

walking in circles, you may opt to join a tour of a specific place like Lucky 

Chinatown, which is the only upscale mall in the area.

At this time of the year, the busiest among the Lifestyle Malls is none other than

the Lucky Chinatown Mall. Located in the heart of Binondo's Chinese Community,  

where the highlights of festivities related to the Chinese New Year took place.

Some of its nooks and crannies hold interesting tidbits about Chinese tradition, and 

I had the privilege of exploring them yesterday.

and the mall is our last stop before going back home to our families.

we did not witness the lighting of the dancing fire crackers though.. too bad. we're

both tired and had to go back.

the Lucky Gong. Another symbol of good fortune for the Year of the monkey, 

the soothing sound of the Lucky Gong may calm down one’s mind and soul, 

resulting in the achievement of inner peace.

this year is so different from last year,  last year I attended on the day
itself alone, and stayed for the whole day.
and for this year I went with a girlgoodfriend and stayed til 1030pm and
was not able to go back with the tour group. but I can tell that we had so
much fun, and its a new experience.
my blog ends here, I still have lots of pictures to share but this space just
wont be enough. follow me on IG instead..
sorry for posting a late blog. its the night after new years eve today.

till here, this is your LOVERBOY Dennis saying KIONG HI HUWAT CHAI.!