Filipino Christmas

This is the day before Christmas.

Among many people in the world who know about the Philippines, it is often said that there is no Christmas like Christmas in the Philippines. It is a four-month celebration starting in September. I have often wondered what is a Filipino Christmas?

Today, because of the pandemic, people say that celebrations will have to be downscaled. Is this then a season primarily dedicated to parties and travels? Sometimes I think that the real meaning of Christmas is a struggle between two symbols – Santa Claus and the Nativity scene.

In the folklore of the Western world, the spirit of hospitality and generosity is symbolized by a jolly fat man with a white beard, wearing a red suit. He comes bearing gifts on a sled pulled by reindeer, not by carabaos. The most popular essay in America was entitled “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” All this hype about Christmas and the mandatory tradition of gift giving is understandable because America is the center of capitalism where Christmas sales have become a critical factor in their economy. One can only imagine what would happen to the retail, restaurant and luxury goods industry if the image of Christmas shifted from that of a Santa with a bagful of gifts to that of Christ being born Man in order to save the world. There is no capitalist significance to the image of a poor carpenter’s child born in a stable surrounded by a group of poor shepherds.

In the Philippines, to see the Filipino Christmas, it is best to leave the enclaves of the rich and even spend it outside Metro Manila. Among the rich, the most popular symbol is the Christmas tree that should, as much as possible, resemble the pine tree. In the typical Filipino household, the birth of Christ is still the symbolic center of Christmas symbols. The most popular symbols are still the Christmas star or the parol and the Nativity scene or the belen.

The Nativity scene is said to be inspired by the story of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Luke’s narrative describes an angel announcing the birth of Jesus to shepherds who then visit the site where Jesus the baby is lying in a manger, a trough for cattle feed. Although most Nativity scenes include the Magi, there is no scriptural basis for their presence on the night of Christ’s birth. Matthew’s account even says that the Magi found Jesus some time later.

During the 13th century, secular materialism and gift giving was becoming more popular than celebrating the birth of Christ. St. Francis of Assisi created the first Nativity scene in 1223 at Greccio, Italy in an attempt to place emphasis on the birth of Christ. The first one was a living scene with humans and live animals. This reenactment became hugely popular and spread throughout Italy; and towards all Christian countries in the world.

Another Filipino Christmas tradition is the dawn mass or Simbang Gabi. This was originally started for the benefit of farmers who could hear mass on their way to work in the fields at dawn. This practice is now found in many foreign countries due to the presence of Filipino immigrants who have kept this tradition alive.

The other aspect of the Filipino Christmas is the celebration with food. The best essay I have read on this topic is entitled “Tasting Filipino Christmas” written by the late Doreen Fernandez, food critic and prolific writer on Philippine culture and culinary experiences. Here are excerpts from her essay:

“For food is at the center of the Philippine Christmas… The food must be shared because community and family feeling are at the core of the Filipino Christmas. More important than what is eaten is the fact that eating together, of the coming home of sons working in Saudi Arabia, daughters who are nurses in the United States and of whole sets of cousins and brethren from whatever parts of the world have sheltered them before Christmas.

“Come, therefore, friend or colleague and savor Christmas with us. Wake with us in the chilly dawn when the bells ring and walk to church for a mass joyous with music, sometimes including castanets and violins. Share the children’s anticipation of the food to follow: the bibingka of rice flour, carabao cheese and salted eggs cooking in aromatic banana leaves on coal; the puto bumbong streaming out of upright bamboo tubes, to be eaten with grated coconut and sugar; the hot salabat, the ginger said to enhance the singing voice and save the throat, given free to all comers, shapes and textures depending on the region – or may hold, as well as arroz caldo, a chicken and rice congee of Chinese origin.

“The Noche Buena, ‘Night of Goodness,’ is to the Filipino not just Christmas, to which the term refers, but also and specifically, the meal shared by the family after the midnight mass. It is also called media noche, meaning midnight because in some families no one is allowed to eat till after midnight mass; one fasts especially from meat for this Christmas morning feast. It is not usually shared with guests, only with the nuclear family, the very closest and dearest.

Yes, Christmas is family time and its food comes from family traditions … Christmas is one of the Filipinos’s most precious statements of what they are.”

Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

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