A Day of Dirty Faces and Rat Parties

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday- a day of renewal when the faithful were segregated from the doomed. Oddly enough, the faithful were the ones who had to walk around with dirty sooty foreheads.  Beneath this  archaic and slightly amusing practice lies an earnest religious tradition for most Christians. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, forty days of reflection, sacrifice, and good deeds all done in the name of Jesus.

Coincidentally, yesterday was also the eve of Chinese New Year. Though the Chinese Filipinos represent a miniscule 1.5 % of the population, they are an economic force to be reckoned with. Not surprisingly, they are a race whose traditions and superstitions have managed to infiltrate Filipino culture. It is not unusual to see non-Chinese wearing red or polka dots on their own New Year. Yesterday, all Filipinos bid farewell to the Year of the Pig and ushered in the Year of the Rat.

These two seemingly unrelated holidays colliding cannot be more apt, despite the superficial differences. The Christian one is a day of humble blessedness with fasting and abstinence from meat. It’s a day when dirtying the external symbolizes a willingness to cleanse the inner-self. The Chinese one is about explosive fireworks, wearing vibrant colors, and gorging oneself to a stupor. Essentially both rituals symbolized a new beginning, a chance to start fresh. Lucky for the rare few who are Chinese Filipino Christians, they enjoyed unifying the dichotomy of the situation.