After almost 15 years being away from the Homeland, I got another glimpse of Christmas in the Philippines last month. Just like two years ago, it was still almost a full month before Christmas Day when I left Manila, but the festive feeling was already in the air, although, I was told, with less intensity than the previous years. There is a prevailing hopelessness throughout the year, but somehow, the pliant Filipinos manage to have fun during the Christmas season.
The malls were alive with people, Christmas carols were being blared by some shops, and the malls were adorned with the usual Christmas lights and decors. The streets were similarly dressed up for the holidays, and in some streets, colorful parols for sale greeted motorists. At this time of the year, Filipinos laugh and smile, and go about their lives as if everything was well with the economy and the nation.
I wished I could stay for the real thing, but my new home – America – beckoned. Home is where the heart is, and America is where my family stays, and it is where I’ll spend this Christmas season and probably the remaining Christmases of my life. Yet. Christmas days spent back home continue to fill our memories of long ago of that now so distant land.
After living on a distant shore all these years, I can truly say that nothing beats the way Filipinos celebrate Christmas. The genuine joy that the season brings to millions of Filipinos in the Philippines is the same reason why the some 8 million overseas Filipinos yearn for home at this time of the year.
For even just during those few days that Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines, many Filipinos feel they can share the blessings that the world brings. Because of the mandatory 13th month pay and the bonuses paid by nearly all companies, big and small alike, many people are able to afford what they can only dream about the rest of the year.
For the children of the poor, the Christmas season is only one of two instances when their parents can afford to buy them new set of clothes and new pairs of shoes, the other being the school opening. Christmas is also the only time for many of these children to own a brand new toy, often as a gift from their parents or from their ninong or ninang.
The Christmas season is also their chance to earn some money to buy candies or toys. As early as December, young boys and girls prepare their instruments for their traditional caroling, making drums out of empty cans covered by plastic, tambourine out of bottle caps, and even just a pair of sticks to provide percussion. At dusk, they form into groups of three or four, and make their rounds starting on the night of Dec. 16 until Christmas eve. At the end of each night, the carolers count their earnings and divide them equally among themselves. Pity the children of the rich, I don’t think they even experience joining one of these caroling escapades. For these nine days, being poor can be more fun than being rich.
While the kids look forward to the advent of dusk during those nine days to earn some money, the teenagers await with anticipation the coming of dawn during that same period. For these teenagers, it is a chance to be with their crushes, girlfriends or boyfriends as they walk to the church in the biting cold. As early as three in the morning, from Dec. 16 to Dec. 24, they wake up and wear their best sweaters or jackets, have fun with their barkadas on the way to church, only to sleep while the mass is going on.
After the mass, they bounce back to life to join their friends again, feast on bibingkas and puto bungbong on their way home, and hang around a bit before being called home by their parents.
Towards midnight on Christmas Eve, parents and their children don their Christmas clothes and trek back to church for the Midnight Mass. The church becomes a venue for both solemn celebration of Christmas and a chance to mingle with friends again.
From the church, families retreat to their homes for the traditional noche buena, a minor preview of the grand celebration at lunchtime the next day. The noche buena often consists of pan amerikano (bread loaf) or pan de sal, keso (queso de bola for those who can afford), hot dog, coffee or hot chocolate, etc. Noche buenas are usually only for the family.
But the grand Christmas celebration, usually at midday of Christmas Day, is for the entire clan. It is an occasion for children and grandchildren to gather together in the house of the patriarch or matriarch of the clan. Family members exchange gifts, catch up on each other’s lives, and partake of the sumptuous meal. Children play games, the male family members drink beer or liquor, everybody participates in a singing session (using karaoke or otherwise), and the female members engage in endless banter.
Towards the afternoon, children, accompanied by their parents, visit their ninong and ninang to get their Christmas presents. Others visit friends, watch movies, and drink with friends. The merrymaking goes on till late at night. But the fun does not end there, because in six days, everybody gears up for a noisy New Year’s Eve revelry.
At least once a year, during the Christmas season, Filipinos are able to let off steam from the pressures of trying to survive, the poor are able to enjoy a bit of material happiness, families renew their bonds, and everyone has fun. Christmas brings pure and genuine happiness to many Filipinos.
I am reminded of one Christmas Day long ago when my brother, who was one of hundreds of militant activists detained during martial law, sent me a simple self-made Christmas card from his Fort Bonifacio detention cell. The card, which had a simple drawing of a nipa hut with a parol, had this message: “Christmas lives not under a fancy Western Christmas tree; it lives in the hearts of men who genuinely wish good will for his fellow men.”
On this note, let me all greet you a very Merry Christmas!
