I used to visit Ongpin a few days before Chinese New Year to feel my forefather’s presence and to buy decors, tikoy, hopia, siomai, Chinese good luck charms but I haven’t done that for the past three years. Heavy traffic was the main reason and last year I was in the US on Chinese New Year.
It’s the Year of the Earth Dog and I don’t have doggie decors. We do have real dogs here, Tyler, Stitch, Jack and Lucy, minus Twinkle.
We only have a few decors this year from previous years’ pineapple lanterns. I still have Year of the Horse decors. Okay na lang din yan, just like dogs, horses have four legs and a tail.
My son was taught in Xavier how to make this intricate Chinese lanterns and I remember helping him. I no longer remember how.