Pomeranz helps Panunuluyan launch in NYC

I’m amazed by David Pomeranz’s energy. He’s simply indefatigable!

He topbills a series of shows, titled The Magic of Christmas, kicked off at the Casino Filipino-Bacolod on Dec. 13, followed by those in Cebu (Dec. 14) and Davao (Dec. 15). More: at Heritage tonight, Airport Casino-Filipino Dec. 20, Pavilion Dec. 21, Iloilo Dec. 22, Angeles Dec. 27, Olongapo Dec. 28 and Tagaytay Dec. 29.

Still obviously jetlagged, David met the press yesterday to promote his new album, You’re the Inspiration, which is, he said, his loving tribute to his Filipino fans.

David has just flown in from the US after he helped launch the Panunuluyan sa Konsulado as an annual pre-Christmas Filipino tradition in New York City at the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan last Dec. 7.

David, a native New Yorker and suki at Philippine concert scenes, thrilled Pinoy fans in the Big Apple with his surprise appearance as he serenaded them with two songs, Pasko Na Sinta Ko, and his own classic hit song Got To Believe in Magic.

Top to bottom: David Pomeranz with Consul General Mario De Leon Jr. and Mrs. Eleanor De Leon... David with NY Fil-Am leaders Ilo Echevarria-Wallenstein and Vivian Talambiras-Cruz... and David with (from left) Deputy ConGen Tess Dizon-De Vega, cultural attaché Marievic Dimaculangan and Fil-Am leader Ave Pimo

“He didn’t hesitate to say yes when we invited him to perform even if he was scheduled to travel to Manila shortly,” Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre quoted Deputy Consul General Tess Dizon-De Vega as saying about David whose other hits include King & Queen of Hearts, Born For You and If You Walked Away. “The guy is simply humble and generous.”

Said Edmund, “Panunuluyan was reenacted for nine consecutive days (Dec. 6 to 14) at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center by different performers who took turns portraying Mary, Joseph, the innkeepers and onlookers, with bright lanterns and other colorful Yule decors in the backdrop.”

It was revived after the Archdiocese of New York ordered the Filipino community to stop holding the time-honored Simbang Gabi sa Konsulado, which was celebrated at the Philippine Center for 26 consecutive years until 2011. The archdiocese cited a Roman Catholic sanction against celebrating Holy Mass outside a sacred worship place.

But the community decided to continue the tradition of Filipino Christmas, even without the Eucharist, at the Philippine Center which they call “our home away from home.”

According to Edmund, the Panunuluyan became an instant hit that even Consul General Mario De Leon and Consul Bong Carreon took on minor roles on the last day as shepherds during the Nativity scene, while Deputy Consul General Dizon-De Vega played the Virgin Mary on the second day.

Various choral groups, led by the magnificent San Lorenzo Ruiz Choir, provided music and singing dialogues as Mary and Joseph approached house owners and inn keepers for a place to stay, only to be rejected each time.

From two to as much as five Fil-Am organizations served as co-sponsors every night. They joined forces to present distinct interpretation of the Panunuluyan, with matching colorful costumes and set, and afterwards host a salu-salo (get-together) at the Philippine Center lobby where everyone partakes in traditional Pinoy Christmas fare like hamon, lechon, pancit, lumpia, bibingka and puto bumbong.

“Every day was different...may kanya-kanyang gimmick ang mga performers that all turned out to be touching and beautiful,” said Vivian Talambiras Cruz, chairman of the Coalition of Philippine Schools Alumni Associations, which co-sponsored the first night in partnership with the United Nations Philippine Cultural Society and the magnificent San Lorenzo Ruiz Choir, which provided heavenly music throughout the 75-minute festivity.

Consul General De Leon said, “Mary and Joseph actually represent all Filipinos and other immigrants searching for our place in this world. We’re all pilgrims journeying in this world like Joseph and Mary. But the journey continues and didn’t stop that night. And they (Mary and Joseph) are asking us if we would like to be with them.”

De Leon also took the opportunity to ask everyone to remember and pray for the victims and survivors of Typhoon Pablo in the Visayas and Mindanao. At last count, the death toll is more than 1,043 with hundreds still missing and thousands of families displaced.

After staging the Panunuluyan for nine consecutive nights, Fr. Patrick Longalong, who represents the new breed of Fil-Am religious leaders, said, “Panunuluyan has a deeper spiritual meaning for all Filipino migrants that’s why it was immediately embraced by the Fil-Am community. And let’s face it, Christmas is more fun here in the Philippine Consulate,” added the young parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Snows Parish Church in Floral Park, New York, to the loud applause and cheers of community members.

A prayer for the Filipino migrant community, written by DCG Dizon-De Vega and Fil-Am leader Ilo Echevarria-Wallenstein, was also read each night in keeping with the designation by Pope Benedict XVI of 2012 as “The Year of Faith.”

The cast and crew of Panunuluyan led by Consul Bong Carreon and Consul General Mario De Leon Jr.

It read:

As the Holy Father calls on the faithful to rediscover the journey of faith, which is often neglected in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, we join hands in this special celebration of the Panunuluyan so as to share in the rediscovery of your great love for us — a love which made you sacrifice your own beloved son to redeem the world from sin.

We pray for each and every migrant who is commemorating the sacred season away from the company of their loved ones and the comfort of places familiar and dear. May they always, like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, find welcoming hearts wherever they may be.

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Photos by Jun Manlapaz