More Pinoys on charm offensive in Chinatown Inquirer.net
HOPING TO FINALLY FIND love or win the lotto this year? Boost your chances by paying a visit to lucky charm shops in Binondo, Manila.
According to shop owners in Manila’s Chinatown, the number of Filipinos buying lucky charms is growing compared to the number of ethnic Chinese.
“Every year, more people patronize my store and most of my clients are Filipinos. I guess it’s because Filipinos are very superstitious,” said Maxima “Tita Maxie” Tiu on Friday.
Tiu is a feng shui practitioner and owner of a general merchandise store on Ongpin Street.
Elena Torribio, 45, who has been selling Chinese lucky charms for the past 20 years, echoed Tiu’s observation.
“More Filipinos are following Chinese traditions, maybe because there are many successful Chinese, especially in the field of business,” Torribio said on Friday.
Tiu, who has been selling lucky charms for more than 10 years, attributed the Filipinos’ growing belief in feng shui to the global financial crisis and the series of natural calamities that have wrought death and destruction in the country in the past few years.
Year of the Metal Tiger
People flock to Binondo, not only to join the Chinese community in welcoming the Year of the Metal Tiger, but also to snatch up good luck charms, observed Esteban Tengco, a 35-year-old businessman from Makati City, and Vilma de Leon, a 65-year-old resident of Tanza, Cavite.
Tengco said his water-refilling business did not do well last year. He was in Binondo on Friday looking for a good luck charm that would attract wealth and prosperity.
