Gold Medallion

My daughter is engaged to be married to Derrick who comes from a traditional Filipino-Chinese family. They follow most Chinese traditions including the Ting Hun, a formal pre-wedding engagement ceremony adopted from the ancient Chinese cultures. This is similar to our Tagalog’s pamanhikan. Some Chinese consider Ting Hun just as important as a church wedding.

Although my father was pure Chinese, he was only 4 or 6 years old when he came to the Philippines and so he was already very Filipinized. He brought me along several times to Chinese wedding receptions in Binondo but never to a Chinese engagement ceremony. It would be a first time for Edmund and me to experience this, and not as guests but as parents of the would-be bride.

Traditionally, during the Ting Hun, the parents of the girl give the groom a gold medallion with a chain necklace. The parents of the groom will also give the bride an equivalent gold medallion and necklace. This is like an exchange of gifts.

I was supposed to go to Ongpin with my best friend Nelia to buy a gold medallion. Where else can we find these things syempre in Ongpin. But since Edmund and I were going to Bangkok, I didn’t go to Ongpin anymore.

I’ve been to Bangkok’s Chinatown and their gold stores are nakakasilaw sa dami ng gold. Kilo-kilong gold.

Just an hour after we checked in, we hied off to Chinatown to look for the perfect gold medallion for our son-in-law to be. Edmund was not confident that we will find it there because mga Buddhists daw sa Thailand, not Chinese. There was no doubt in my mind that we will find it there. Basta merong Chinatown, merong Chinese gold. Where there’s Chinatown, there’s gold. Ang question, kung meron silang medallion for wedding.

There were not too many choices in terms of design and size. The sizes were fairly standard and the designs were similar. Pare-pareho ang tinda nila. The prices were also standard: the weight of the gold medallion multiplied by the price of gold in the world market at that exact moment. Most stores have a big television screen that shows the fluctuation of the gold’s price, second by second, minute after minute. The store salesmen were all looking up at the screen, pati ako nakatingala rin, as if I knew how to compute the price of gold.
A—- “Naku bumaba tart”.
E—–“Ang alin?”
A—–“Ay tumaas uli.”

They don’t know what medallion is, the sales clerks call them pendants. It’s also difficult to look through the glass cases because many people are buying, paying, counting their money. The stores are not only selling gold, they are trading, buying and selling.

This is the biggest size available. Bigger than this, you have to order and wait 10-14 days. I like this one because it has a nice gold sheen, dragon design, and happy or whatever character that is. Eh mas maganda daw solid. Walang cut-outs.

We didn’t buy on our first day in Bangkok but we were able to survey the available designs, sizes, prices. We shall return.