Christmas, Pinoy style

Philippine Christmas has been described in many unique ways. It is the longest Christmas celebration in the world. The merriment involved is nearly unequalled, and resembles a long fiesta. It is also a revered season full of religious rituals.

But if there was ever an international contest to select the nation with the most Christmas spirit, the Philippines would be the definite winner. Even during this period during the aftermath of the greatest natural disaster that has ever inflicted the nation, the people in the areas ravaged by Typhoon Yolanda have refused to give up their Christmas celebration.

Many offices and families decided to heed the call to cancel their usual lavish Christmas parties and instead donate their budgets to the relief and rehabilitation of the Visayas. But they still found simpler ways to celebrate the season. Instead of dinners, there were “merienda” parties with the menus bordering on dinner fare. Instead of hiring entertainers, there were karaoke performances and beer or soft drinks substituted for wine and heavy liquor.

Almost the entire world celebrates the Christmas season. But most countries like Japan concentrate on the commercial side of Christmas and not as a celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. But even in many Christian countries, there are moves to remove the “Christ” from Christmas and celebrate it by simply greeting each other with a safe and relatively neutral “Happy Holidays.”

But the Philippines is not just an overwhelmingly Christian country, it is also a deeply religious country. The season’s rituals are very much intertwined with religious festivals. One very traditional Filipino event during this season is the ‘Simbang Gabi.’ Alejandro Roces, former Secretary of Education and preeminent Filipino cultural historian, once wrote that it is the “Simbang Gabi” that gives our Christmas celebration a thoroughly Filipino look. It is only in the Philippines that the official Christmas season opens with the nine day series of masses.

He further wrote, “The ‘simbang gabi’ is actually a misnomer because the Masses are celebrated at four o’clock in the morning. The folk called it Night Masses because at that time it is still dark as night. The ‘simbang gabi’ is something that demonstrates how Christmas became Filipinized. Christmas coincided with the rice harvest season when farmers have to be harvesting their crops at the crack of dawn. So, to accommodate the farmers, the novenary Masses were celebrated at four o’clock in the morning. It became such a part of Christmas that even in urban centers in Metro Manila, people attend Masses at the ungodly hour of four in the morning. It is unnecessary in the modern era to attend Mass that early, but it has become a tradition and a custom. It helps to stamp our Christmas celebration as purely Filipino.”

Another Filipino Christmas tradition is the Christmas Eve fiesta celebration often still called the Noche Buena. Its main features are the social gathering of the family and food as the centrepiece of the evening affair.

The food associated with the ‘simbang gabi’ are the ones with pre-Hispanic roots. These are the rice cakes or ‘puto bumbong’ and rice pudding. According to Roces, these foods were originally given to pagan harvest spirits and gods as thanksgiving for the harvests. So when the first Catholic missionaries came to the Philippines, it was not difficult for them to convince the Filipinos to transform this pagan celebration into a Christmas celebration.

After all, December was really a harvest season and the Filipinos were still in the mood to celebrate and give thanks. This is why Roces wrote, “Our Christmas celebrations have echoes of our pagan past.”

Many American-influenced trappings have become popular especially with the Filipino upper classes. These include the Christmas tree (complete with fake snow), electric lights, and Santa Claus. But over the past generations, two Christmas symbols have become an integral part of the Filipino scenery. These are the Christmas lanterns or “parol” and the Nativity scene or the “belen.”

Another story is that these lanterns are placed outside people’s homes as symbols that St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary will not have to look for an inn to stay. They would be welcome to stay in a home with a star lantern on display outside.

The star lantern symbolizes the Star the Three Kings followed to bring them to the town of Bethlehem on the night of the birth of Christ. It is said that the level of splendour of the star lantern reflects the mood of the people or the state of the country’s economy, or both.

In fact, in one of Rizal’s writings, he used this symbolism to describe a town: “It was Christmas Eve but the town was sad. Not one paper lantern hung from the windows.”

This unique brand of Filipino Christmas tells us we are not Americans, or Europeans or even like other Asians. We are a distinct people with our own character and spirit, our own customs and traditions, our own way of thinking, our own way of life.

The great Filipino nationalist Claro Mayo Recto once said that nationalism must include pride in being Filipino. He said, “A firm belief in the genius of our race and in the capacity of their destiny is another basic component of nationalism. But this belief can only be acquired through an understanding of their struggles and accomplishments , their trials and tribulations, the sum total of their experiences since the dawn of history.”

After a year of natural and man-made disasters, the Filipino people’s outlook for the future still remains very positive. As Communications Secretary Coloma said, “We salute the optimism and resilience of our people in their steadfast determination to attain a higher quality of life and a better future.”

As we celebrate Christmas once more, in our own unique Filipino way, this is one time we can truly say with pride: Only in the Philippines. 


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