Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent
How time has flown indeed, it seems that we just finished celebrating Sinulog week and now we are celebrating Ash Wednesday, which is the official beginning of the season of Lent. However, for this Lenten Season in the era of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 all local churches will follow the directive of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to sprinkle dry ash on the heads of Catholics, instead of the traditional marking of their foreheads with wet ash. So Ash Wednesday in 2020 will be an unforgettable one.
Perhaps the CBCP learned from what is happening in South Korea today and they believe that COVID-19 was started from a church group. Even in my group, the Sons of David, we are also doing something so as not to spread COVID-19 to our members by not holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer and no longer shaking hands after the blessing by the priest. We Catholics usually flock to churches during Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday, February 26, and ends on April 9. Lenten season is the 40-day preparation of Catholics for Easter Sunday and is considered an important observance by Catholics.
For me, it really doesn’t matter if the ashes are sprinkled on our heads or placed on your forehead. I strongly believe that God protects his flock from any contamination because they are attending a traditional celebration of the Catholic Church.
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Last Thursday afternoon we were invited by the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum in the Gotiaoco Building across the Cebu City Hall in downtown Cebu City. This building is owned by the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum Foundation which was founded last September 2010. The Board of Trustees are Bob D. Gothong as chairman, Elizabeth Gan-Go as vice chairman, Amb. Frank Benedicto as senior adviser, Ricarido King as treasurer, Jose Soberano as assistant treasurer, and Robert Dino as secretary and auditor. National Museum director is Jeremy Barns.
The Gotiaoco Building was built in 1904 near the wharf as it is located a few meters from the old Shamrock Hotel. It was leased by Manuel Gotianuy until his son, Atty. Augusto Go, turned it over to the national government. I was able to ride in its elevator, the first of its kind in Cebu City. It was a special moment in my life.
Today, the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum is one of the best museums that I have ever seen in Cebu City as it does not only have a huge Chinese Junk in the center of its main hall, but all around you will see many IT screens that will bring you back to the past and forward you to the present. It is a fitting museum to house the Cebuano Chinese heritage that began long before the Spaniards even came to Cebu.
In his book, “Over the Edge of the World” by Laurence Bergreen, he noted that the Cebu natives served the Spaniards who came here food in Chinese porcelain. This is the best proof of the trade between China and the Philippines. In his speech during the launching of the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said a visitor asked to be brought to the Chinatown in Cebu City. But the mayor told us he had to refuse his visitor simply because there is no Chinatown in Cebu City as the entire city of Cebu was a Chinatown itself unlike what they have in San Francisco, New York, or Binondo in Manila.
During the Q & A, I asked a very relevant question whether the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum will have a complete record of Cebuanos with Chinese parentage. I asked this question simply because my maternal grandfather is Adela Suico Avila. She married my grandfather, Don Jose Avila, who, after she died, married her younger sister Filomena Suico. So we married the Suico family name twice. Now Suico must have been the result of two Chinese names, Sui and Co, merged together.
There are many Chinese names made from the combination of two names through marriage, Co-juangco is one, Go-thong is another. Go-kong-wei is another, and I’m sure that there are many other names that we can find and this is what we’d like to see in the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum.
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