The Mass of the Rooster

Christmas, as the old cliché goes, is just around the corner. Here in the Philippines, the Holiday Season starts on December 16 with the time-honored observance of Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi. The Misa de Gallo is one of the longest and most popular among the Filipino traditions in the country. For nine days, beginning on December 16 and culminating on December 24 with the Misa de Aguinaldo, or the midnight mass on Christmas eve, Filipinos attend dawn masses, which usually start at 4 a.m. This practice started centuries ago during the Spanish colonial period. Christmas coincided with the rice harvest season when farmers have to be harvesting their crops at the crack of dawn. To accommodate the farmers who wanted to attend mass but could not leave their fields, the priests held early dawn masses.

In the olden times, the pre-dawn mass is announced by the ringing of the church bells. In some provinces, brass bands play traditional Filipino Christmas songs and parish priests would knock on the doors of every home. The faithful flock to their churches, with the men wearing barongs and the women donning their elegant ternos. After mass, families gather in their homes to celebrate Noche Buena where they partake of customary Filipino delicacies like queso de bola, jamon, bibingka, puto bungbong and salabat or tsokolate.

Nowadays, the celebration of Misa de Gallo is still observed, albeit in a lot of new and different ways, but the tradition continues. Part of it are the colorful lights and lanterns that still adorn the streets. Beautiful parols still hang in each window of every home. Heart-warming Christmas songs still fill the air. And Filipino families still gather in their homes and feast on traditional Filipino delicacies.

The Misa de Gallo traces its origins in Mexico when, in 1587, Fray Diego de Soria, prior of the convent of San Agustin de Acolman, requested permission from the Pope to hold Christmastide masses outdoors because the church could not accommodate the huge number of people that attended the dawn mass. It was in the 16th century when Pope Sixtus V decreed that these pre-dawn Masses be also held in the Philippines starting every December 16 in keeping with the traditional nine-day festivals of Filipinos in celebrating auspicious occasions like harvest time. The Misa de Gallo, however, was only started in the 18th century by a Spanish friar who intended it as a novena for a bountiful harvest the following year. After the harvest proves bountiful, the dawn Masses became an annual tradition.

Misa de Gallo literally means Mass of the Rooster, to indicate it is held at dawn when the rooster crows. According to legend, the crowing of the rooster at the dawn of each morning symbolizes the daily triumph of light over darkness and the victory of good over evil. When Christ was born, a rooster announced his birth by crowing, "Christus Natus Est!", "Christ is Born!" The Misa de Gallo signifies the coming of the birth of our Lord Savior, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed His own life to save us from our sins. May the essence of this, the Season of Hope, continue to pervade in our hearts so that we can keep on living our lives the way our Lord wants it to be.