Tag Archives: wealth

Palabok, New Year’s, and Circular Shapes

On New Year’s Eve, I always cook palabok… it’s a, it’s a rice noodle dish with shrimp stock and pork… but the most important part is the stuffs you put on the top.  You know how I always have you arrange everything in a circle, right? Have you ever noticed that even the toppings are circles?  So I put the noodles in a circular serving platter, and we have the slices of hard boiled egg, the chopped green onions, the boiled shrimp, squid rings, the calamansi halves.  All of that is supposed to be circular to invite wealth and abundance in the coming year.  Di ako sure kung talagang Pilipino yung tradition na ‘yun… (I’m not sure if that tradition really is Filipino) because the idea of circles is usually part of the Chinese culture.  Maybe it’s an influence, I don’t know, I didn’t really ever think much about when I started doing it or why.

Background: The informant is a 48-year old Filipina immigrant to the United States who is married to a Filipino-Chinese man.  She learned how to cook traditional Filipino foods from scratch from her mother and oldest brother in the Philippines, where cooking meals from household items was essential to maximizing the volume of food when money was scarce.

Context: This conversation happened at the dinner table, where the informant and I were eating store-bought palabok that was not arranged in circles.

I am not really very well-connected to the Chinese aspects of my identity, since I was raised only in the Philippines and the United States, where even my Chinese relatives had largely assimilated to the cultures of their respective environments.  Arranging food in a way that invites wealth from a different culture’s beliefs is a practice of my mother’s that I found more interesting after I began to reflect upon what she told me.  The circular food and arrangement is a call back to her previous life in the Philippines, where financial stability was a primary concern at every turn.  The sprinkling of a different culture’s traditions (likely my father’s influence) reminded me of myself, the way that they are mixed together.  Food is an incredibly important aspect of family life in the Philippines, and families in a household scarcely eat their meals separately.

Frugality Proverb

Original Script: “Kung may isinuksok, may idudukot”

Transliteration: koong my ee-sin-ook-sok, my ee-doo-doo-kot

Literal Translation: If there is something put in, there is to take out

Smooth Translation: If there is something to put in, there is something to take out

Background: The informant is a 68 year-old Filipina immigrant who moved to the United States with her two children when she was 40 years old.  She heard this proverb from her father, who raised her and her siblings frugally in her childhood.  She had to use these skills as she started her life in the United States from scratch.

Context: This piece was told to me at a luncheon after our weekly Sunday services.

This proverb refers to being wise with one’s money, that if you invest or save for a rainy day, then it will be there to use when you need it.  Many of the informant’s relatives migrated from the Philippines to the United States from the 1970’s all the way to the 2010’s.  As new immigrants, it was essential that they were prudent with the money they had so that they could provide their children with a bettr life.  Prior to that, the informant was also raised in a context where financial stability was difficult to achieve.  Therefore, her father often only saved their money for the family’s essentials with little room for the “wants” in life so that they had extra money for unexpected situations.

New Homes

“Our LoPing taught us that when you are building or buying a house, climb the steps leading to the front door saying oro (gold), for the first step, plata (silver) for the next one, and mata (death) for the third one and so on. The last step should be oro or plata, never mata which is considered bad luck. He also said the front door or gate should face the rising sun. When we move into a new home, my Ninong taught me to always bring rice and salt into the house before anything else. It’s a symbol for continuing prosperity (that we will never go hungry in that home).”

Background: The informant is a 60 year-old woman who was raised in a context where her entire extended family is deeply connected and often support their cousins, nieces, and nephews when they are moving into new homes.  These beliefs were given to the informant when she bought her first home for her family.

Context: This piece was told to me at our church’s weekly luncheon after our Sunday services.  Many of our relatives live locally, so the extended family has opportunities to see each other often.

Buying a new home is a huge deal for people in the informant’s extended family, as it serves as a sign that the individual has created a strong foundation for themselves and can now stand alone as a unit of the extended family.  Therefore, whenever someone buys a new home, members of the family and community often provide these guiding superstitions and beliefs in order to invite prosperity and wealth for the new household.  The informant was also raised to be frugal with their money, so prosperity, luck, and financial gain were important values to emphasize for when they bought a new home.

Ubos Biyaya

Original Script: “Ubos-ubos biyaya, bukas nakatunganga”

Transliteration: oo-boss oo-boss bee-yah-yah, boo-kas nah-kah-too-nga-nga

Literal Translation: Finish finish gift, tomorrow staring

Smooth Translation: Finish your gifts too quickly, tomorrow you’ll be staring emptily.

Background: This proverb was often told to the informant, who was raised to be careful and wise about how she distributed eating her special treats on the rare occasions that she received them.  If she was finishing her “carefully doled out goodies” too quickly, she would be cautioned being so hasty with finishing up her blessings.

Context: This proverb was shared to me through a Facebook Messenger call later in the day with an informant who had previously spoken to me at our weekly Sunday luncheons.

This proverb says a lot about the informant’s family values, especially in regard to special gifts and abundance.  While this proverb was mostly used when the informant was a child and it was usually in reference to inconsequential things such as candy or food, it is indicative of deeper values that ran in her family.  In using this proverb, children learn to value more extended gratification and taking their blessings in small “bites” instead of ravenously expending all that they have.  Because if they do, they will simply have nothing to do later on but stare emptily when they could have had more of the blessing then if they had been more prudent about going through what they had.

Lentil Salad=Money

RITUAL DESCRIPTION: Consumption of lentil salad on New Years Eve to bring wealth.

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 42, French

CONTEXT: This woman told me that her most prized ritual is that every New Years Eve she and her family would eat lentil salad in order to call wealth. She said the little lentils symbolize coins. Her mother and entire family did this as she grew up. The little “coins” are meant to be abundance and eating them is calling wealth into the upcoming year.

THOUGHTS: I see how lentils could be like little coins. I find this ritual interesting because lentil salad is popular in France but I never knew it had this double meaning. It seems to make sense although I’ve never heard of such an interesting food on New Years Eve.