Let's Talk About: Pinoy's New Year's Superstitions/Traditions

FOOD RELATED

     Media Noche (Spanish for “midnight”) or Bisperas ng Bagong Taon (“New Year’s Eve” in Tagalog) is a festive time here in the Philippines. There are a lot of traditions that Filipinos follow in the belief of ushering in a prosperous New Year. Many of these customs you may recognize as bearing Chinese influence.

     Part of the fun in getting ready for New Year’s Eve is to come up with 12 round fruits, each to signify a month of the year. Ideally, there should be twelve different fruits — grapes, oranges, clementines, cantaloupe, pomelo, watermelon… It’s a tough challenge, so half the fruits likely end up being non-circular like mangoes and apples. The fruit that Filipinos most associate with the celebration of the new year and will rarely be without is imported ubas, purple grapes that are very round. 

     Filipinos usually don’t eat fish and chicken dishes during New Year’s Eve, as they symbolize scarcity of food.

BE NOISY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

     Filipinos go all out with the noise on New Year’s eve. Filipino paputok (firecrackers) come in so many shapes and go by very interesting names — Sinturon ni Hudas (Judas' Belt - a string of firecrackers), Super Lolo (“grandfather”), Kwitis (from the Spanish word 'cohetes' meaning 'rocket'), Bawang (“garlic”), Baby Rocket, Watusi, Pla Pla, Airwolf… Some firecrackers are already banned since they are very dangerous for children, not only for children but also for the adults. It's because some of their fingers are being blown-up and other accidents too!

     Children love scratching the dancing firecracker watusi against concrete sidewalks and cemented surfaces, although the government has been warning against it because of chemical poisoning.

     Pots and pans are clanged to scare away evil spirits. A few men shoot guns in the air if they think they can get away with it. Cars and trucks are vroomed and horns are tooted to cause as much noise as possible. Empty cans are dragged all around, whistles are blown.

     So by the end of New Year, lots of 'ligaw na bala' (stray bullets) shot a person will be all over the news, even the accidents due to firecrackers!

OTHER FILIPINO TRADITIONS ON NEW YEAR’S EVE

• Open all doors, cabinets, windows and drawers to let good fortune in.
• Filipinos try to dress in polka-dots because the roundness signifies prosperity.
• Pockets are filled with round coins, which are jangled to attract wealth. We scatter coins as well around the house.
• At the exact moment of midnight, Filipino children jump as high as they can because they believe this will make them taller. (Which I do all the time)
• Whatever condition your wallet is in when the New Year arrives, so it will be the rest of the year. Make sure to put in the money your received on Christmas.
• Filipinos spend the last days of the year vigorously cleaning everything, especially of dust. However, on the first day of the new year, you are not supposed to do any cleaning. No cleaning on New Year’s Day itself!
• And don’t start the year off by spending money. Frugality on the first day sets the tone for wise money management in the coming year.

     We also have these (from left to right - rice- water - salt). My mother said it is for the continuous grace of blessings in terms of primary needs. We also have eggs in a bowl, which is still unknown to me of what it is for.

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Disclaimer: Most information are gathered from the internet. 😁

Let's Talk About: The Perks of Christmas

     Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that is celebrated all around the world, therefore, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Eventhough, Christmas is a holiday in many countries, it is not to all.

    We are accustomed to include exchanging of gifts, decorating Christmas trees, caroling with friends or family, sharing meals with the family, attending church and, in other countries, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive through their chimneys.

     Christmas songs started to play immediately after 'All Saints' Day' (Nov. 1) and 'All Souls' Day' (Nov. 2), apparently, it shows to say how much we are excited for this particular holiday that every once in a year happens. I mean, why not?

     You get new clothes because of Christmas Parties, the foods (Ugh!) and let us not forget that you get presents - which are gonna be either a 'thing' you gonna like/love or money from your parents, friends, godmothers and godfathers, Oh, the joy of presents (and money, of course)!

     So by the end of Christmas, you are practically 'rich', hah! Though, you being 'rich' is gonna be short-live because you're parents will tell you to keep those money as your 'baon' (lunch money or so) at school. So much for buying what you have in mind... *sighs*

     Enough about that! Let's go onto the topic of foods, those delicacies you'll be eating for about a couple of days is absolute heaven!

     We might be on diet but when this time comes and your table is full of mouth-watering foods, you won't hesitate to dig in. I might as well share this little funny scene every time when it is time to eat. Well, we, my family, would grace food or pray first before eating so when their eyes are close, I would sneak a hand to quickly grab a food and shove it into my mouth. When they knew what I was doing, I began to openly eat. They don't mind since they long gave up on scolding me for it. Besides, I am absolutely not the only one doing this kind of sneaky thing *wink wink*. Of course, I do pray once finish to give my gratitude.

     There is also this thing that neighbors always do on Christmas Eve. Basically, we live in a compound which all residents are our landlady's daughters' and sons' family and there are only two of us residents who are aliens, haha! We share what we have and prepared.

     Here, in Philippines, we don't have winter, but around December, the temperature are cooler until February thus our (or just mine) sleep is good around dawn - its colder, that's why it's getting hard to wake up (for me, I guess). So, yeah, colder temperature is one of the perks of Christmas here as well.

     So, that's all I can think of.

Pinoy Christmas ft. New Year

     Apparently, after Christmas comes New Year, so we will also gonna cover New Year here in Pinoy Christmas.

     Here's Pinoy Christmas ft. New Year!

It's Christmas

"Merry Christmas, everyone."

😃😃😃

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* Brought to you by: Our Beloved Minions.