Deniz,
This is about
Christmas in the Philippines. It is not quite like your Ramadan but
both have religious overtones.
When we talk about
Christmas in the Philippines let’s start with the trite Philippine
boast that it is predominantly a Catholic country. To boast being
a Catholic may be inimical to one’s health in Protestant-controlled
northern Ireland. Not in the Philippines. Filipino Catholics, the
good and the bad, are proud of their Catholicism, a curious phenomenon
considering that Catholicism was rammed down their throats with the
point of a sword.
Christmas traditions,
therefore, evolved from what Catholic Spanish friars taught Filipinos
for 377 years from 1521 to 1898.
Today, even among
the supposedly sophisticated, crassly materialistic expatriate crowd
in Chicago, many Catholic Filipinos dutifully go to communion, contribute
generously to the collection box, or belong to pious Catholic groups.
But it is transparent that there are hypocrites among them just like
they were in the old country. But that's another story, best left
to the experts in human religious behavior who might be able to shed
light on why, at a supposedly subdued religious celebration to honor
the Virgin Mary, various devotee groups compete with blatant vanity
as to who has the best looking and most expensively attired statuette
of Mary.
To a non-Filipino
observer the parade of several Virgin Mary's during a procession amidst
a mechanical recitation of 10 Our Fathers, 50 Hail Marys and a host
of mumbled songs would seem like a sarcastic, comical parody of whatever
piety the friars taught early Filipinos. My wife has her own way of
piety - she goes to a corner of our darkened bedroom and does her
beads quietly, oblivious to my screams over the blaring TV when the
Chicago Bears get a touchdown.
Anyway, back to
Christmas in the homeland in the old days... Each year, beginning
the 16th of December, dawn masses are held daily. The last one will
be the midnight mass on the 24th - a total of nine days of prayers
(novena). Luckily there is no such thing as snow out there to bog
down oxcarts. Tropical rains are equally a nuisance but Decembers
are blissfully drier and pleasant. Oxcarts, by the way, had become
extinct, replaced by a unique contraption called jeepneys. A jeepney
evolved from surplus jeeps left by the US military in the last war.
They were converted into minibusses and redecorated with garish "artwork."
They became the ubiquitous mode of public transportation.
In the old days
the nine-day Christmas services were held in the mornings but peasants
who compose the majority population of the country played hooky if
they can get away with it because they had to work on their fields
early in the mornings before the tropical sun would make working in
the fields intolerable.
Spanish authorities
- there was no separation of church and state for three and a half
centuries - decided to hold masses at dawn so the peasants would have
no more excuses in missing morning services. Dawns in December, however,
are still dark because the Philippines, though in the tropics above
the equator, are in the northern hemisphere like the United States.
Grumbling peasants
therefore trudged to church while it is still “night,” hence
they called a dawn service “simbang gabi,” or “night
mass.” Aside from losing some sleep they had to listen to the
hated friars recite some Latin stuff they don't understand, on top
of which they, the impoverished peasants, had to plunk down some precious
coins into the collection basket. Someone had to support the friars.
The dawn masses
eventually became treasured traditions and to some extent had assumed
some social facades, where one can optionally choose to preen while
pretending to pray. Recalling my childhood Christmases the tradition
of receiving gifts (or scheming to receive gifts) were not limited
on Christmas Day itself. If we missed receiving a gift from a favorite
uncle baptismal godfather on Christmas Day it was all right to ambush
him any day thereafter until January 6 of the new year. Filipinos
are not just pious - they are also superstitious. If the three kings
gave gifts to The Baby on January 6, then it must be all right for
Philippine uncles, aunts, and godparents to dole out Christmas gifts
up to that date, too!
In other words,
the Christmas season in the Philippines runs from December 16 to January
6, a total of 22 days! For 22 evenings children will go all over the
neighborhood serenading houses with Christmas carols. No matter how
much they murdered “Silent Night” or Jingle Bells”
with their out of tune vocal chords and mispronounced English words
they will be rewarded with a few coins.
As early as November
some houses would already sport bamboo-ribbed paper star lanterns
hanging on windows, obviously a practice inspired by the bright star
over Bethlehem when Jesus was born. Today, high tech lights lacing
neighborhood windows supplement the paper lanterns. Making giant paper
lanterns has evolved into a fascinating art, especially in a province
called Pampanga, in the vicinity of what used to be the largest overseas
American air force base. The lanterns are not only huge but are also
intricately designed with multicolored blinking electric bulbs. They
have to be seen to be appreciated. The base, by the way, is gone because
Philippine leaders refused to renew its lease. Also, it was destroyed
by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.
The Spanish friars
of old taught Filipinos to honor saints with festive celebrations
called “fiestas.” Traditionally, during a fiesta, any stranger
can come to any house and partake of holiday food. Fiestas are therefore
expensive and financially draining but Filipinos, poor as they are,
learned to love these fiestas which became their chance to show how
hospitable they can be inspite of their miserable lives.
The Christmas
midnight mass has become one such fiesta.
Young men would
escort their girlfriends to church. After the mass they would proceed
to the house of any friend who invited them or to their own houses
or their girlfriends’ for the traditional gluttony that will
last into the wee hours of dawn. One favorite repast will be hot,
thick, rice soup with huge chunks of chicken (arroz caldo con pollo).
There will be all sorts of rice cakes and sugared ginger tea. Or there
will be chocolate made from scratch (cacao beans from the backyard
that are roasted, ground, sugared and molded into the native version
of an American Hershey bar)... Today, in homes made more affluent
by dollar laden balikbayans (vacationing expatriates), there will
be expensive Scotch whiskey, ham, sweet meats, imported oranges, grapes...
It came to pass
that after three and a half centuries, in 1898, Filipinos finally
kicked the Spaniards out, looking to Americans as allies because the
Spanish-American war broke out. When the USS Maine exploded in far
away Cuba this American admiral named Dewey was "coincidentally"
in Hongkong with his complement of deadly US navy ships. He steamed
into Manila Bay and destroyed the Spanish fleet without a single American
casualty. Filipinos were jubilant until they realized that Dewey refused
to sail back to San Francisco.
Sometime earlier
a character named Jose Rizal intelligently analyzed events that were
current at the time. He brought out the possibility that within a
century the "great north American republic" (his words translated
from Spanish) would get involved in the Philippines. In 1896 the Spaniards
executed him by firing squad for his nationalism. A couple of years
later the Americans did come and conquer. Rizal was right.
Thus began the
heavy Hollywoodization of the Philippines. One result of that morphing
is that some features of the Philippine Christmas season are ridiculous.
Cold country motifs, no matter how blatantly out of character in the
tropics, will dominate the season's ambience. There will be Christmas
pine trees decorated with artificial snow! At Christmas parties and
at stores there will be heavily costumed Santa Clauses sweltering
in the ninety degree heat. There will be a sprinkling of native ditties
in the air but what will predominate wafting all over the archipelago
of at least 7,100 islands will be the classic strains of Irving Berlin’s
“White Christmas,” and other American Christmas favorites...
But, hey, Christmas
is Christmas in whatever way or form. So, as they say in the Philippines,
“Maligayang Pasko!”
You can guess
what that means...
Fred Natividad
Livonia, Michigan
Email address:
frednati@earthlink.net
