Sacred Heart Parish's Chinese New Year Celebration

CEBU, Philippines - A lantern festival and variety show culminated the week-long celebration of the Chinese New Year at the Sacred Heart Parish. The event took place at the Sacred Heart Center last February 21.

The evening opened with the Fiat Choir of San Miguel Chapel Community singing a prayer in Mandarin to the tune of “Tanging Yaman.” The Fiat Choir from our territorial parish sang like they were imported from Beijing.

The program was composed of a variety of Lantern and Fan Dances – both traditional and modern, performed by little children and young adults, and even a martial arts demonstration. The program was most entertaining and inspiring, prompting spontaneous applause from the audience every now and then.

The following schools contributed numbers to the excellent program: Sacred Heart Hijas, Cebu Eastern College, Samanthabadra, Child link Education Center, St. Jude Learning Center, and Zapatera Elementary School. The FCCY contributed a modern dance as the last number. 

This year’s Lantern Festival was a concrete opportunity for dialogue between faith and Chinese culture as well as dialogue between Chinese and Filipino cultures. It is quite an experience to hear the San Miguel Fiat Choir singing in Mandarin, and the Zapatera Elementary School (a public school) children doing a magnificent Chinese Fan Dance.

The evening was also a good cultural event for the Chinese schools and institutions to come together to share their talents and potentials in a spirit of community.

Among the highlights of the week-long celebration were the blessing of the newly constructed Ancestral Shrine for the honor and veneration of the dear departed which I blest as the parish priest, and an inculturated Chinese Mass, which incorporated Chinese dances in the liturgy, and ending with the Ancestors Honoring Rite, presided by Fr. Peter Chuang. 

During the week, there was also a Chinese movie festival featuring a number of Chinese movie classics such as “Not One Less,” “Soong Sisters,” “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman,” “Joy Luck Club,” and “Mulan.”

There was also a lecture on the Beliefs and Practices of the Chinese New Year by Mrs. Teresita Ang See of the Kaisa Heritage Center. She talked about the context of the Chinese New Year – the Spring Festival, the Chinese belief system, including Feng Sui as an exact science as against the commercialized superstitions, and the modern practices.