A season for tikoy — and fortune-telling

’Tis the season for tikoy — literally, "sweet cake" — and fortune telling as a new lunar year begins tomorrow.

While commonly referred to as Chinese new year, the occasion is now celebrated by the general populace, with President Arroyo declaring tomorrow a "special working holiday."

Everybody wants tikoy, the sweet, round, sticky rice cake that will cap many a new year’s eve feast this evening. Traditionally, this is the time for families to come together to "gather around the hearth," to share a meal as lavish and bountiful as the budget will allow. The stickiness of the rice cake fosters the unity of the family.

About as much in demand as tikoy are the services of geomancers, fortune tellers, feng shui masters and, at the very least, books on Chinese astrology and horoscopes.

The complicated system of Chinese astrology is based on a 60-year cycle introduced in the year 2637 B.C. by Emperor Huang Ti. This cycle is made up of five 12-year cycles based on five elements — fire, water, wood, metal and earth — and 12 animals. Though there are several legends explaining the choice and sequence of the animals, the most popular one is that these 12 animals in sequence — Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig — answered the summons of Lord Buddha and came to bid him farewell before he departed the earth.

There are as many predictions of how good this year of the Wood Monkey will be as there are people making the predictions. To determine one’s individual fortune for the year ahead involves not just one’s animal sign, but other factors such as one’s governing element, passive or active (yin or yang) side and ascendant sign. The latter is determined by the hour of one’s birth, since the 24-hour day is divided into 12 sections of two hours each, with each section in turn ruled by one of the 12 animal signs.

Thus a comprehensive reading involves a very complicated system of charts and tables, cross-references and interpretations of the influences certain stars may have at certain times.

Just as complicated — and as varied — are so-called good luck practices, a list of do’s and don’t’s for the start of the new year. Traditionally, the celebration of the new year stretches up to the 15th day. One is thus allowed to pay respects or "pai ni" (as we say in Hokkien) or, for children, to receive ang pao or red packets of money up to this day. This official end of the new year celebration is marked by the eating of tsong zi or sticky rice cakes.

Some of the more common "good luck" practices include wearing red, preferably with large polka dots to symbolize money (although a text joke says wearing rectangles to symbolize bills is even better than wearing polka dots, which only symbolize coins or barya), having round fruits (13 kinds is the rule), not lending or collecting money, not cleaning the house. Other esoteric practices include not touching sticks or knives or needles and thread (to avoid accidents or mishaps), not speaking loudly or mentioning someone’s name before dawn, not borrowing things that produce fire, not giving odd numbered gifts, especially money.

Heeding all these caveats — some of them rather ludicrous — may turn your new year celebration into a nightmare rather than a joyful time, which is what the celebration should be.

Enjoy the celebration. As the greeting being passed around by text (how else?) says: "Instead of roses and chocolates, some Chinese give siomai and hopia with this note: ‘Just wanted to sio-mai love for you. Hopia like it.’"

To which I reply: "Tikoy very much."

Gong xi fa cai to all! – Doreen Yu