The Manila Hotel is gearing up for the Year of the Dragon with a lineup of festive events and offerings, adding an extra touch of luxury to the celebrations. The hotel's iconic Grand Lobby will be adorned with elaborate Chinese New Year decorations, setting the stage for a memorable experience.

Dragon and Lion Dance Spectacle

 

Is it just me, or did you notice it too?

From the two Proclamations released by the Official Gazette of the Malacañang Palace, there's one holiday missing. Not really sure if it was intentionally opted out of the proclamation, but of course, we all know there's a reason why. So, have you figured it out?

Well, if you're always on the look for legal holidays and special non-working days every year (take note that it is only in the Philippines), then I'm guessing that you have seen what is missing already.

So, here's the list of the legal holidays and special non-working days in 2023.

January 1, 2023      - New Year's Day (Sunday)
January 2, 2023      - Special Non-Working Day (Monday)
February 25, 2023  - EDSA People Power Revolution Anniversary
April 6, 2023          - Maundy Thursday
April 7, 2023          - Good Friday
April 8, 2023          - Black Saturday
April 10, 2023        - Araw ng Kagitingan (Monday)
May 1, 2023           - Labor Day (Monday)
June 12, 2023         - Independence Day (Monday)
August 21, 2023     - Ninoy Aquino Death Anniversary (Monday)
August 28, 2023     - National Heroes Day (Last Monday of August)
November 1, 2023  - All Saints' Day (Wednesday)
November 2, 2023  - Special Non-Working Day (Thursday)
November 13, 2023- Eidul Fitr (Monday)
November 27, 2023- Bonifacio Day (Monday)
December 8, 2023   - Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Friday)
December 11, 2023 - Eidul Adha (Monday)
December 25, 2023 - Christmas Day (Monday)
December 30, 2023 - Rizal Day (Saturday)
December 31, 2023 - Last Day of the Year (Special Non-Working Day) (Sunday)

If you want to be sure of the dates you can always refer to the Official Gazette of the Philippine Government. Below are links to the two (2) Proclamations.

Proclamation No. 42
Proclamation No. 90

So, what's missing?

Another reason to celebrate a good year at SM. It’s going to be a prosperous 2022 as SM Supermalls celebrates the Year of the Tiger with fun-filled events and activities for its shoppers! Whether you choose to stay home or safely shop at SM Supermalls, there are exclusive CNY deals for everyone to enjoy!

Lucky Dining Deals. Kick-off the festivities with an abundant gastronomic feast with discounts and promos from January 16 to February 2. Shoppers can enjoy Lucky Eats Deals of as much as a 22% discount from participating tenants. For your convenience, you can easily shop via the SM Malls Online app where you can arrange for delivery or pick-up, or by calling our SM Customer Care hotline at (02) 8876-111, 0917-876-111, or 0908-876-1111. You can also have the fill of your favorite food while safely dining at Chinese New Year-themed indoor and outdoor Lucky Eats Dining Spots.

Lucky Red Finds Bazaar. Boost your luck and find all the lucky red items from SM Supermalls’ partner tenants and affiliates in this Chinese New Year-themed pop-up market.

Lucky Tiger Park. Families will be treated to a dazzling Chinese New Year experience featuring an outdoor set-up with lighted 3D tiger art installations, Chinese lanterns, and Drive-Thru Lion and Dragon Dances and Fireworks Displays to welcome the year of the Tiger!

Lucky Paws. Show off your pet’s best CNY-themed costume and get a chance to win pawsome prizes when you submit photos of your pets online or take them to select SM Supermalls Paw Parks.

Lucky Forecasts. When it comes to ushering in good fortune, SM Supermalls knows how to help prepare shoppers for the positive energy this new year brings. By scanning the QR codes, you can check out your 2022 Chinese zodiac brought to you by Feng Shui expert Ms. Marites Allen. Plus, you can also get a chance to win exciting prizes and SM vouchers!
v Additionally, SM Supermalls has also prepared other activities and promos for everyone to enjoy until February: 

One of the perks of being a blogger is you get to experience things first hand and I did. Though I'm into painting and done some of my own works, still, the craft of Chinese Painting is different from the Western Style of Painting. I'm not a pro on any but I like what I experienced.

Just right before the celebration of the Chinese New Year with the Fire Rooster as the symbol of the year, the Chan Lim Family of Artists made a welcoming opening exhibit at SM North EDSA. Also as part of the celebration of the head of the family on its 80th Birthday.



To make the celebration kick off and to officially open the exhibit the Chan Lim Family of Artists made an interesting program for the guests, media and bloggers. The first part was the introduction in learning to do Chinese painting of which I learn a lot. Though I'm accustomed of the western way of painting, Chinese painting is much different and it got a lot of techniques and styles to learn before making an exquisite masterpiece.

Though I have been visiting Binondo since I was a child I have never been to this place at Chinese New Year's Eve. This was my first time to be here and witnessed how busy the oldest Chinatown in the world. I was honored that Chinatown Lai Lai Hotel invited bloggers and gave an opportunity to witnessed the celebration of the Chinese New Year in Chinatown. I think it is one of the lucky places to spend Chinese New Year.

A festive occasion  as every Chinese community welcomes the Lunar Year with a joyous celebrations. In line with this event Chinatown Lai Lai Hotel herald the Lunar Year with traditional festive goodies and sumptuous feasts which is set to take place on February 7, 2016, 6:00 pm to 12:00 mn.

To celebrate the year of the Fire Monkey, Chinatown Lai Lai Hotel has prepared an array of traditional Chinese activities. The celebration will kick off with a Lion Dance and Taoist Blessing to bring good luck to the whole Filipino and Chinese community. There will also be snippets of Feng Shui forecasts and predictions for the upcoming year.

As part of the celebration of the Chinese New Year, SM City North EDSA is showcasing the different Chinese Street Foods at their Sky Garden area.  Making every customers, passersby, and guests crave for those yummy and delicious foods.

The Chinese Street Food Festival has started last January 17 and it will end on 23.   So, if you're planning to have some food tripping this long weekend better get your friends or families and run to SM City North EDSA Sky Garden for that yummy and tasting experience.

To better get you more enthusiastic in getting there here's a sample of what you could expect at the Chinese Street Food Festival.  Below are some of the pics from the Chicken Deli stall participated in the said festival.  Aside from there are lots of other food stalls that offers tasty Chinese street foods.  Well, our correspondent Jefferson was lucky enough to experience that crave quenching and tummy filling event.


Chicken Deli is one of their stop over.  Chicken Deli provides a variety of chicken dishes for their consumers.  One of their best selling is the Chicken Inasal which was really known in Bacolod and was really a hit for the masses.  They also offers chicken barbeques and also they have this Special Batchoy.

Image courtesy of Aylin

Govby's Food Stall... not really familiar with this food stall but they are offering different tummy fillers.  Some of their hunger quenching foods are the Hong Kong Noodles which I think are fried noodles, mini siopaos, and some shabu-shabu.

Image courtesy of Aylin

Image courtesy of Aylin

My Red Basket offers a delightful list of pork and shrimp siomai, beef siomai and also marcon and siopao.  Some of the typical Chinese food that can be seen around in Chinese streets.

Image courtesy of Aylin

Siomai House is also one of those known siomai seller in the country and believe me their siomai is a hit.

Photo courtesy of Aylin

Photo courtesy of Azrael.

Better head on now to SM City North EDSA!

This year, Chinese and Filipino-Chinese Community will be celebrating the coming of Chinese New Year.   It is said that the coming year is the year of the Water Dragon.  I have always seen and heard how Chinese celebrates their New Year, since some of my early years were spent with my father in the streets of Divisoria and Binondo.  Most of the traders and establishments owners are Chinese and some were my father's friends so I get a chance to somehow see some of their celebrations.


For this Chinese New Year I was very fortunate to get invited in SM North Edsa's celebration of the Chinese New Year.  They unveiled their theme for this years Chinese New Year.  Also and of course a much more up close with the dancing dragons and lions.


Chris Tiu was the emcee for that celebration and at the same time narrator of the Chinese New Year story. Aside from Chris Tiu, Richard Yap or commonly known now as Papa Chen was also their to play the role of a Chinese Emperor.  As Chris Tiu narrates part by part of the story there were Wushu Demonstration, Presentation from Chinese Symphony Orchestra, Dragon and Lion Dance, and there were other exhibits as part of the Chinese New Year Celebration.





Though I know and maybe most of the people know about how the Chinese New Year came about and why people use firecrackers during the celebration, I would still share a short brief about the story.

Just a brief, so story goes like this....


In early times in China, a certain little village was terrorize by a monster that came once each year. One day, just by luck, the villagers discovered that the monster got weaknesses and scared of color red and evenmore afraid of loud noises! So the villagers prepared for the coming of the monster. When the monster came everyone in the village ran for the red banners and noise makers they had made. They waved their banners and rattled their noise makers. This scared the monster so much that made it ran away and was never heard from again!

That's the short story about it and that's why there's always firecrackers and clanging sounds every year.  KUNG HEI FAT CHOI!

Photo courtesy of Azrael

A few more weeks to go, Chinese-Filipino Communities will be celebrating the Chinese New Year and as part of the celebration the Ateneo De Manila University Ricardo Leong Center for Chinese Studies, Shangri-La Plaza and Ateneo-Celadon will be presenting its 6th Spring Film Festival featuring 6 different movies.


Films to be shown are Ocean Heaven, Confucius, Bodyguards and Assassins, Lost on Journey, Country Wedding and King of Mi-lu Deer. The screening will happen on January 20-29,2012 at the Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City.  Take note all these six movies are to be enjoyed for free.  

Ocean Heaven
Description: Drama
Length: 100 minutes
Origin: Hongkong China, 2010 Release Date
Language: Mandarin, with English Subtitles
Cast: Jet Li, Wen Zhang


Confucius
Description: Biographical Drama
Length: 120 minutes
Origin: China, January 2010 Release Date
Language: Mandarin, with English Subtitles
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Zhou Xun,Chen Jianbin
Directed by: Hu Mei


Bodyguards and Assassins
Description: Action Historical Film
Length: 135 minutes
Origin: Hongkong China, 2009 Release Date
Language: Mandarin, with English Subtitles
Cast: Wang Xueqi, Hu Jun, Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Tony Leung
Directed by: Teddy Chan


Lost on Journey
Description: Comedy, Drama
Length: 95 minutes
Origin: China, 2010 Release Date
Language: Mandarin, with English Subtitles
Cast: Wang Baoqiang,Xu Zheng, Li Man


Country Wedding
Description: Comedy
Length: 90 minutes
Origin: China
Language: Mandarin, with English Subtitles
Cast: Zhi Jun, Ding Jiali, Yang Lixin, Xie Yuan


King of Milu Deer
Description: 3D Animation, Fantasy
Length: 90 minutes
Origin: China, 2009 Release Date
Language: Mandarin, with English Subtitles

To know more about the movies just visit the Spring Film Festival 2012 page.