If the Philippine Christmas season famously (notoriously?) starts every September and ends on Epiphany (January 6), I personally look at that period between December 31 to the Lunar New Year as a more-or-less month-long period to celebrate the new year. 20 days ago, we marked January 1, 2024 on the Western calendar; in another 20 we will say goodbye to the Water Rabbit and ring in the Wood Dragon. It speaks to who we are as human beings that we tend to identify new beginnings as seasons of hope, renewal, change for the better, and the wish for a continuation of good things.

And so, we are indeed continuing a good thing this 2024. I am writing this short Publisher’s Note right in the middle of this new year’s season to express my thanks to Mia Tijam for agreeing to continue her editorial work from last year to this year. I can’t relay how grateful I am that Mia has agreed to take on the role for another year, which assures us of another set of 12 tales here on Philippine Genre Stories, another 12 reasons to look forward to each month of the year.

Yes, the calendar, whether Western or Eastern, is just another man-made construct of labeling time (but what stories we can weave around these constructs, eh?), yet we mark these dates nonetheless, facing our future with optimism and measuring our lives in moments in time.

In the traditional benediction, I wish PGS readers good luck and fortune as well as happiness for the New Year.