Dragon holiday

Manila Standard Today, Lifestyle | January 18, 2012

On Monday, January 23, Chinese people everywhere will celebrate Chinese New Year, the most important of all Chinese holidays and arguably the most auspicious date on the Chinese lunar calendar. For the first time, it will be commemorated in the Philippines—the only country without grand-scale festivities to do so—as a special non-working day.

In fact, the only other territories that list the event as a public holiday aside from East Asian nations are Christmas Island, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei, all of which have exceptionally well-preserved Chinese customs and traditions with significant populations that practice Chinese religions. Singapore, in particular, is known to have the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations in Southeast Asia.

It seems appropriate and quite educational to make Chinese New Year a national holiday because many Filipinos have the incorrect perception about it. It is a common mistake to think that the presiding animal zodiac changes on January 1, the Gregorian New Year. There are people who have already started wearing their Year of the Water Dragon lucky charms (but it’s technically still the Year of the Metal Rabbit).

Waves of mainland Chinese immigration throughout history have resulted in about 20 percent of the Filipino population having Chinese ancestry today. A majority of which self-identify as Filipino. But it can’t be denied that China has an overwhelming influence on the Philippines. This is evident in cuisine, architecture, interior design, culture and tradition (feng shui, for example).

According to Proclamation No. 295 (the declaration of 2012 holidays), Chinese New Year is “one of the most revered and festive events celebrated not only in China but also in the Philippines by both Chinese Filipinos and ordinary Filipinos as well; and the joint celebration is a manifestation of our solidarity with our Chinese Filipino brethren who have been part of our lives in many respects as a country and as a people.”

However, critics are saying that there are already too many holidays in the Philippines and another one would be bad for business because of lost office productivity.