MEDIUM RARE
My calendar tells me there are 365 days in 2025, with February allotted its 28 days. No, there will be no Feb. 29 this year.
According to conventional wisdom, 30 of those 365 days are national holidays, not counting those to be declared on the spot, as it were, by governors or mayors and such. In effect, our productivity as a people is limited to 11 months per year.
Still, as the saying goes, time is relative. For example, if you need something to be done in a hurry, let a busy person take charge; a laggard will only take it slow and drag your deadline to kingdom come.
Right off the bat, the first national holiday of the year happened yesterday, first day of the year, and there will be another holiday on Jan. 29, Chinese New Year’s Day. It’s the Year of the Serpent, a creature identified with luxury and, according to one interpretation, a year when the feminine element will prevail. As one source puts it, “a woman will prove to be beneficial.” In fact, tomorrow, Jan. 3, will be celebrated by Buddhists as a day of giving thanks to Quan Yin Ma, their equivalent of our Blessed Virgin Mother Mary.
In addition to what they call the Western calendar, the Chinese continue to publish, print, distribute, and follow the lunar calendar of their ancestors. After all, the moon’s 28-day cycle, which was a convenient guide for farmers, is also useful for nonfarmers, such as feng shui advocates, matchmakers, superstitious merchants.
A new year means more busy days ahead for busy people like Lito Atienza, former mayor, congressman, and secretary of the Environment, who will continue to save abandoned babies (800 so far) and find families to adopt them. Patrick Fernandez, whose left and right brain are equally shared by banking data and feng shui wisdom of the ages, blew into town some days ago to sit down with his Manila-based clients. Pablo Tariman can relax now that his book, a collection of interviews with musicians, is hot off the press. My son’s classmate, who works in a bank, is the man of the hour because his friends all want to buy the newly issued polymer notes. No money, no honey!