Goodbye 11, Hello 12!

SHOCKING REVELATION

Frightened by the terrifying message brought by people who claimed that 2012 will be the end of everything?

In fact, some people already admonished their visions, particularly the past year. However, it seemed to be just a fraudulent act. Well, there’s no one who can possibly tell when that doomsday will be. They either just wanted to make people skeptical or uplifting every individual’s faith to our Almighty Father. 

New Year Celebration in the Philippines is all about driving out bad luck or bad spirits and welcoming in good luck for the coming New Year. And this very celebration is known for three words: foods, superstitions and resolution.

FOOD

Holiday is not complete without food feast in every round table in every house. If Christmas has Noche Buena, we celebrate the New Year’s Eve by sharing a midnight meal with our family called the Media Noche. These banquets signify family union and celebration. The food fluctuates. Some serve an all-out feast. Some serve simple meals.

12 round fruits are also advised for New Year that will bring good luck for the family.

HERE IS A LIST OF MUST-HAVE FOODS IN NEW YEAR

PANCIT

Uncut noodles are served for long life. The two favorite noodle dishes during the Chinese New Year in the Philippines are pancit bihon and pancit canton. 

WHOLE FISH

          To invite wealth and happiness in the upcoming year, dishes are served that are homophones for words that signify good fortune. For example, the Chinese word for "fish" sounds like the word "surplus" as in a surplus of wealth. 

VEGETABLES

        Although most Chinese Filipinos are of Christian faith, Buddhism retains influence in their culture, and it is a Buddhist belief that you are cleansed by eating green vegetables. 

SWEETS

Kids love chocolate gold coins with their shiny foil wrappers. Candy and other sweet things such as dried fruit and candied lotus root are given in a traditional Chinese box or tray. The "Tray of Togetherness" is octagon-shaped and has eight compartments. Eight is considered the luckiest number by the Chinese.

PEANUTS AND SEEDS

Cooked sunflower and pumpkin seeds are among the food items that are included in the compartments of the traditional Chinese New Year tray. Melon seeds are dyed red to symbolize good luck.

POMELOS, ORANGES AND PINEAPPLES

The most popular fruit during Chinese New Year is mandarin oranges or tangerines because of their round shapes and golden color.

Because oranges were not widely grown in the Philippines and were only imported in recent decades, suha (the local pomelo, sort of like a large grapefruit with a very thick rind) has became the Philippine fruit that one gives away or serves to visitors during the Chinese New Year season. As for the pineapple, it resembles the word for "prosperity" in Hokkien, the Chinese language of most Tsinoys. 

SUPERSTITIONS

According to Tagalog lang.com there are so many interesting Filipino superstitions or folk beliefs associated with New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in the Philippines. Filipinos say you should observe the following customs and traditions to ensure that the New Year being welcomed is a prosperous one. Many of these superstitions bear a strong Chinese influence. 

>>> Make as much noise (firecrackers and any alternative source of noise) as you can to scare away evil spirits.

 

>>>Turn on all lights so that the coming year is bright.

>>>Open all doors, windows, cabinets and drawers to let good fortune in.

>>>Debts must be paid off. Fill your wallet with fresh peso bills. (Filipinos believe that whatever your financial state is in at the stroke of midnight, so it will be in the New Year.)

>>>Clean everything.

>>>Wear polka-dots. Anything round signifies prosperity.

>>> Scatter coins around the house, on tabletops.... inside drawers... 

   Some preferred to have lucky charm that gives fortune in every aspect of life such as money, social life, relationship and even longevity.

RESOLUTIONS

A new year spurs people to change their ways and selves to be better, that is why New Year’s Resolutions seem to be a must in our to-do list before the year ends and a new year comes.

..Spend More Time with Family & Friends

            This needs no explanation, every second, every hour and every day we always desire to spend more time with the people that we love and care for.   

..Fit in Fitness

            After many parties, events and bulging foods from left to right during the Christmas season, Filipinos are sure to have gained some weight, that’s why for the next year we aim to burn down all the fat that we took in the past year.

..Enjoy Life More

            New Year’s Resolution’s aims at making us better versions of ourselves, with these resolutions we contemplate about what we do wrong and we lack of that we try to change or reform.

..Learn Something New

            We may have done so many things in our life last year but we seem to not get enough of everything that a new year is a new and perfect time to start to do something else that we have not tried before.

..Save more money

            After spending so much during the Christmas season, being generous seems to take its toll as the year comes to an end leaving us empty pockets… which spurs us to change our impulsive spending ways and convert it to frugal and prudent spending ways.  

THE REALITY

To live more a meaningful and worthy life, at this very moment, let’s start the year with a commitment to God. Let’s open our heart and seek for God’s purpose. 

A year full of memories, maybe bad or good, or tragedy or victory should be left along the way as 2011 fades and 2012 rises.

Have a Prosperous New Year to all!




photos of writersblack

Christmas.. an antidote to human self-centeredness

Lights shimmering and dancing to a merry beat; sweet voices of the children singing in the street; everyone offers each other joy and cheer; there is no doubt that Christmas is here.

Christmas is undeniably one of the most anticipated and most celebrated occasions in the Philippines, and probably one of the longest, for the start of the  –ber months is also the commencement of the Christmas season. And what better way to celebrate this jovial event is what Filipinos are very much fond of—foods, and lots, and lots of foods crowding the top of the Christmas table.  

Aside from the numerous Christmas parties to attend to, and the generous gift giving, Christmas is known for the delicious and sumptuous foods during the noche buena. As we all well know for a fact that Filipinos are great in the kitchen, every Filipino families’ noche buena table is sure to be full of foods of all shapes and sizes, and, of all colors and tastes. 

Of course, there are always the usual favorites or perhaps what others may call, the must-haves in every noche buena. There are the different kinds of pastas: spaghetti, carbonara or macaroni, but other families choose the more traditional like pancit. 

Other dishes that are always present are the foods that are proudly made in the Philippines such as the famous adobo, the everyone’s favorites sinigang, kare-kare, mechado, afritada or caldereta. And all the Philippine-made dishes will never be complete unless paired with rice—which most of us Filipinos could not live without. And we should not forget the essentials every Christmas: the Christmas ham and keso de bola at the center. 

After a heavy meal there sure are the creamy and cold desserts like macaroni or fruit salad, ice cream, refrigerated cake, brownies, cookies and the sweet list goes on. 

Christmas is a very important event generally for most of the Filipino families. Others say it as an assemblage for it brings much closer bond and reunites every family member. No matter how far our distances from each other might be—from California to Philippines or from other places—we Filipinos are really willing to cross the seas so we can be under one roof during this season.

For children, it really gives shape to their attitudes and understanding how Christmas begun. Gift-giving to less fortunate ones is truly a trademark especially to the kids when this occasion comes. This is known to be the solid expression of warm love and affection without expecting anything in return. And for us adults, this is an hour for reflection for what God has done to us the past year.

This season does not need to be costly but be the season of goodwill by means of sharing of unconditional love, care, joy and manifesting peace and forgiveness to all. Christmas will be costly if we overlook the real purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, for He came to “seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). 

There’s no place like D’soria (Presyong Mahirap, Pormang Mayaman)

“The Mecca of value shopping” and “The mother of all markets in Manila”, two of the names Divisoria (DV) are known for. It is one of the most visited places in the Philippines for one reason…. its affordable and friendly prices. And since Christmas spirit is just around the corner, all pairs of feet seem to be leading to this well-loved place to score some gift-worthy yet budget-friendly finds.

DV is a market in the heart of Manila and is acknowledged for its broad variety of low-priced products and bargain shopping. The place is also considered as NCR’s premier economic centers.

Why is DV so famous to us Filipinos? The Philippines is a third world country and statistics show that the majority of the Filipino people belong to the middle and the lower class of the social statuses. Not everyone can afford to have a leisurely trip to the mall and manage to go home with heaps of paper bags of signature brands on both their hands. Majority of the population opt for places where goods are sold at a friendly price without losing its quality. And the perfect place for that is Divisoria.

DV, if not the only, is the first market wherein a shopper can haggle or bargain for products. If successful, not only she was able to save for other things to buy, there’s also a sense of great pride and joy for having able to purchase a product at a lower price.

Another advantage, DV has lots of stores and stalls standing side by side, and has a wide variety of goods and products to choose from. Everything and anything—from shoes to bags, from everyday to formal wears, from toys to novelties, from school, office and household supplies to decorations, from fabrics to textiles—are just within your reach and are sold almost half the price when you buy it at the mall.

Stores are not the only you can find, for DV also has all the famous and well-loved fast-food chains and restaurants in the Philippines providing shoppers food after a surely very tedious shopping spree.

One of the best offers of DV is its ‘Night Market’. At nighttime, the streets of DV are lit by the piles of stalls offering a variety of products and these products are sold at a much lower price than the its original.  

DV, despite all these advantages, has some minor disadvantage. It is said earlier that the place is packed with thousands of stalls and stores all crammed up. This very situation makes it hard for its loyal shoppers—especially during the Christmas season. The place has the tendency to become too crowded—add the heat of the scorching sun or downpour of rain when you are shopping outside. Although this very fact can’t keep the Filipinos from going to this place.

We you are in DV, be prepared for long-hours of walk and be sure to bring your best haggling smile and skill for you to enjoy the full experience of being there.   

     

         

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Writer’s Black is a blog site created by three enthusiastic junior students of Polytechnic University of the Philippines taking up Bachelor in Journalism. This contains information that will surely catch the interest of every individual. It will store writings and articles about anything under the sun that will hook the interest of the readers.

“Writer’s Black” is based on the term “Writer’s Block”, a condition first described in 1947 by psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler which primarily associated with writing, professional or recreational. In this condition the author loses the ability to produce a new work or continue a piece he is working on. 

The blog title is a pun of the said term. However its meaning is in no way connected or related to the meaning of the latter word.  The phrase ‘writer’s black’, in the bloggers’ perspectives, refers to ink—a liquid, more often than not, in black shade—used by writers in writing. The tagline “a writer’s strongest weapon is his black ink” furthermore justifies the idea that the writer’s black ink is a reminiscent of a soldier’s sword, and that the writer’s words are like a soldier’s combat skills.     

Bloggers: Elhen, Anghelli, Juvy

The blog is owned by third year journalism students; Juvy Ann Dacasin, Mary Anghelli Lingo and Elhen Joy Terrado—classmates and friends who are both alike and different from each other. Collectively, they share ardor passion in writing, films, sports, books, music. They also have similar personalities—a force that helps them work in harmony. Each possesses different and contrasting personalities. However these very differences will stand as a bringer of sweets and spices that will certainly aid in the resurgence of interest and curiosity. 

Writer’s Black aims at providing information and entertainment to the readers and followers by offering edifying and interesting articles, scenic images and, enjoyable videos. The bloggers will always be at their best selves and will go to the extent of where their strength and knowledge will allow them to for the fulfillment and success of their blog, for the pleasure that it will bring to our readers that will certainly be reflected upon us, and for the teachings and lessons to be learned in the process. 

  

The responsibility of this blog site is dependent to the bloggers. The bloggers are steadfast for any inaccuracy, fault or mistakes that are published to the said site and will construct a solid wall for a definite credibility and truthfulness for every word you spot and read from “Writer’s Black”. Everything written in the blog is mainly a product of the bloggers’ views and opinion as a constructive interpretation. It may disagree and have a conflict with the other individuals’ point of view; however, the disagreement is purely unintentional and against the bloggers’ will. 

May the blog fulfill its purpose in informing, entertaining and educating the readers and followers, as well as in providing beneficial learning experiences to the bloggers.

The bloggers would be very remiss if they did not thank their readers and followers who support in the birthing of the blog.

So from the bottom of our ecstatic hearts, we thank you.