Kung Hei Fat Choi /Gong Xi Fa Cai 2025!

Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, marks the beginning of a new year on China’s traditional calendar. It is also called the Spring Festival, considered the most important of the traditional Chinese festivals, a worldwide celebration for more than two billion people.
What is another way to feel the essence of the Chinese New Year aside from watching the colorful and lively dragon and lion dancing on the streets, as well as the lantern shows and some fireworks?
This year, my husband and I decided to visit the grand Temple of International Taoism International, Incorporated, for a late afternoon visit, located beautifully by the Naga riverside and the city PNR Station along Balintawak Street. The Temple, regarded as the only public Taoist temple in the city, is a place of worship for the local Chinese residents and believers to revere their ethnic Chinese gods and ancestors. I first got acquainted with the Temple and interesting splices about local Chinese life with my Tai Chi mentor, Shifu Albie Tan, who continues to guide and inspire young and older women and men to good health and positivity through Tai Chi done in the Metropolitan Naga Cathedral grounds every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning. I felt good when we came to revisit the Temple on Chinese New Year.
From the gate, I passed a small store that stood as a guardhouse. I looked at the tall Chinese Temple in awe at the Pagoda-like structure in dominant bright red with square bases rooted to the ground but looked around from the outside. It stands proudly and splendidly against the backdrop of the Naga riverside. In front are pots of Snake plants lined up by the pathway, as if to remind the visitors that 2025 is the year of the Snake and that much holds good luck for those with the Snake sign.
Anton Arpista, the Temple’s caretaker for 31 years, welcomed us with a big smile. The guest, Susan Tan, was taken aback instantly as she thought the man who walked ahead of me was an American visiting for the Lunar New Year in Naga.
Ni hao! My husband called out to me while standing in front of the golden shrine, his arms raised, and he grinned casually after hearing the remark or the compliment. He is used to the reaction to his looks, and he went along teasingly by speaking in English in his low-key voice. I looked back at my husband and realized he did look more like an American now, as his skin had grown much lighter and more mestizo through the years. I approached the table where Susan sat with cups of roasted peanuts, half an empty plate of what seemed to be noodles and a teacup. Anton stood beside, ready to offer the generosity of the Temple. We introduced ourselves, and our exchange warmed up to perfection regarding the Chinese New Year and the Temple.
We served ourselves with the famous Birthday Misua for Long Life, a bowl of thickened syrupy Bilo-Bilo, and a hot cup of tea. I must say, the Birthday Misua was one of the best that I have eaten in many years. nton has been cooking Misua for the Temple since he can remember, with his favorite seven ingredients: pork, chicken, squid balls, dried and wet mushrooms, Chinese Longanisa, shrimp, and carrots. e pointed at a signage in front of the shrine about the donors for the tasty noodles for this year’s New Year. t cited the name Hong Enterprises, which gave out oodles of the tasty Misua, as the year’s main donor. rom the window outside the Temple, I saw the Hong Enterprises building towering above many structures along Magsaysay Avenue.
Inside the Temple are signages emblazoned with writings on the wall. The Six Disciple’s Principles read: 1) Patriotism or love of country and leaders; 2) Respect for citizens and elders; 3) Kindness or true love and Love for life; 4) Honesty or transparency and unselfishness; and Unity or oneness and cooperation. The Five Disciple’s Rules are 1) Preserve a good heart; 2) Read good books; 3) Learn good examples; 4) Say good words; and 5) Do good deeds. The basic principles of Love thy country, protect the people, 3) Honor thy ancestor, and 4) revere thy God.
The Tai Chi symbol—a circle divided into two equal parts by an S-shaped line representing the forces of yin and yang—is at the center of the Temple’s signage. It is the same symbol as our Taichi group, known as the Yin-Yang symbol.
Commonalities
Anton, a Bicolano whose family lives on the outskirts of Naga City, admits he has become so attached to the Temple that his life is all intertwined with it now, with his wife, who keeps to the store, and two children. e is a Catholic and maintains that he found fundamental commonality in his Catholic faith with the Taoist practice. The Temple has countless images of Gods and patrons, like the Catholic church. Anton explained that the saints at the Temple have their days of birthdays and celebrations just like the Catholics.
I did some research because I cannot take all of Anton’s explanation as facts. Online, I gather that the Taoist Temple we visited on Chinese New Year Day 2025 promotes the teachings of achieving balance and harmony from being opposite, interconnectedness of things, peace, naturalness, simplicity, and the core values of compassion, moderation, and humility, the same basic teachings in Tai Chi, the health and meditation exercise that I and many like-minded senior citizens came to join since 2018. Popular now are the symbolisms of red for power to attract prosperity, red envelopes (hongbao) filled with money.
The Chinese New Year began as worship for sacrifice and good harvest. Then, it evolved into a Spring Festival to celebrate economic activities, then back as a religious activity combined with social and welfare services like environment, schools, and assistance for the poor. If it serves the purpose of achieving peace and harmony, it is worth celebrating meaningfully and happily. Kung Hei Fat Choi! in Cantonese. Gong Xi Fa Cai! in Mandarin.
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