Pinoy Christmas

Filipinos love to celebrate!  This fondness for celebration is embedded in our culture, and can be felt in every occasion happening in this country of 7,100 islands.  From fiestas, to weddings, to birthdays, big or small celebrations alike, we give importance to these momentous occasions unfolding before us.  Not to be missed in our wide array of celebrations and festivities is CHRISTMAS.  We celebrate it in a distinctively Filipino way.

In whatever celebration, food always plays an important part.  For those with passion for good food and fine dining, Christmas is an opportune time to feast on the different Pinoy delicacies.  Simple native foods such as suman, puto bumbong, or bibingka, together with hot chocolate or salabat complete the combination of this native delicacy, set on the table of a simple Filipino family.  This season can be more elaborate, as the well-to do families prepare an ostentatious display of meals for everyone like lechon de leche, hamon, fruits of varied kinds, and a lot more extraordinary kind found in a gourmet setting.  In whatever way, this celebration suggests the spirit of sharing among members of the family.

Those highly spiritual and devotional this time show force as they troop to the churches early in the morning for the Misa de Gallo (novena dawn masses) or Simbang Gabi. The Simbang Gabi is concluded with the December 24 midnight mass, after which the family members gather together with the ambiance of a home, sharing the love that the Yuletide season brings.

The enterprising Pinoys are at every nook of the city, selling merchandise of every kind, from Christmas décor, to Christmas toys and foodstuffs.  Almost every kind of Christmas merchandise is being offered.  A simple shopping spree of sort is possible, for children in the family, handpicked at the local tiangge. It is noticeable that whenever Christmas season comes, Filipinos abroad avail of the Christmas rush, to be home either as a visiting Balikbayan, or as vacationing Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), thus, a throng of people at the airports.  The family takes a public ride, or a private car, to their homes filled with spirits of joy and excitement.  Coming home to his/her native land is of highest value for a Pinoy abroad, as the spirit of belongingness can only be found in their own families.

Pinoy Christmas will never be complete without the presence of Ninongs and Ninangs.  They are among the most important figures in the minds of the young ones, or even of the not so young and the once young.  At the onset of Christmas, children make themselves available as the final moment of gift giving nears.  The generous godparents prepare truckload of miscellaneous gifts and some barya for them.  The godparents, however, who are observing belt-tightening measures in this time of crises, a closed-door policy is observed.  The latter could be the most discouraging experience for a child, but this is well compensated by a simple present from his/her family when he returns home.

Celebrating Pinoy Christmas is the most exciting way of reminiscing Jesus’ birth in a simple family.  Looking at the manger, is indeed a reminder for all of us that it is not in the lavish way to spend Christmas that makes one happy and fulfilled, but how the spirit of this season lingers on in the hearts of every Christian faithful.  This is the primary reason for the season of Philippine Christmas: that every Pinoy longs to celebrate together with the family that shaped his personhood from birth up to the present state of life.  The symbolic sight of the Holy Family, in a serene mood, is an inspiration that from such, the ideals of Loving, Peaceful, and Harmonious relationship should reign in every Filipino heart during Christmas and beyond.   Fr. Alfonso A. Araceli