Calendars
For a people notorious for its inability to be on time, Filipinos do have an inordinate fascination with dates, as might be reflected by their obsession with calendars. Nowhere in the world does the calendar come with so much value than in the Philippines, not in the monetary sense of course, but in a peculiarly, deeply personal way.
No Christmas giveaway is ever complete without a calendar. In fact, and quite often, the calendar is the Christmas gift in itself. And it can come in a wide variety of forms, sizes, shapes, and of course, costs. It can come as a reflection of shared closeness, as in family portraits, or as tokens of appreciation for shared interests.
Calendars can double as business advertisements or as political messages. They can help promote any advocacy. So part of the Filipino Christmas spirit is the calendar that it may very serve as the bottom line for what Christmas means to a Filipino family. No Filipino family is so impoverished and devoid of all the usual Christmas trappings that will not light up when given a calendar to adorn the sparsest of walls.
A Filipino family may be so poor as to have nothing but instant noodles on the Christmas table, or whatever metaphor may be sufficient to hide such abject and barren feast, yet not feel so bleak in spirit for as long as this season it has a brand new calendar taking up that very special and most prominent place on a wall, or whatever passes for a shield against the elements.
It is not uncommon for a relatively warm and comfortable Filipino home to have as many calendars as there are walls. In a way, calendars serve as symbols of status as well. The more beautiful and expensive calendars, or those given by the most important of persons or the biggest of corporations, tend to occupy the most hallowed and visible places of homes.
In the more affluent homes, they try to make the calendars as unobtrusive as possible, depending on the level of culture and sophistication as may have imbued particular families. But do not let the refinements of life deceive you. Those ubiquitous calendars will always be there, hidden in plain sight with the rest of the fine adornments.
Calendars may also signify degrees of religious devoutness, with calendars carrying religious images often serving as de facto altars where there are none, or where station in life does not allow space for any. On the other side of the spectrum, sexy posters of hot starlets being passed off as calendars become values pieces of art and admiration in every male teenager's room.
It is difficult to put a finger on when this fascination with calendars first took root in the Filipino psyche. But as far back as I can remember, calendars have always been a part of all my Christmases. Christmas is simply not Christmas without the calendar, such that to those who, for whatever reason, just did not get one, there are calendars that are for sale from bookstores to sidewalks everywhere.
When and how this Filipino fascination with calendars dawned on me was very recent, however, and one I will forever remember with clarity. My wife and I heard Christmas Mass 2016 in her hometown in Leyte. During the offertory, when people started lining up with their pre-distributed envelopes, the priest had one acolyte go back to the sacristy and out he came cradling a whole bunch of calendars — one for every person with an envelope. Needless to say, the line was very long.
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