As my 'pretty
good' wife, Josie recently retired as nurse from Mayo Clinic here
in the United States after over 35 years of service, and has not participated
in 30 years Christmas and New Year celebration in the Philippines,
we decided, after so much planning, to go home two weeks before Christmas
Day and up to one week after Epiphany Day, January 6, 2002. And this
is an experience worth relating to.
As far as I could remember, starting probably at the age of five,
Christmas is doubtlessly the happiest day of my life, and continues
to be so in all of my more than 8 decades of labor, life and love.
Yes, an octogenarian is what I am and I still believe in Christmas.
Why? It is not what you get, it's what you give, for it's more blessed
to give than to receive.
To me to be generous
means realizing what a wonderful gift it is to be alive, and deciding
to do all you can to give back. Even if you don't have a centavo to
spend, you can still be generous by telling your parents you love
and care them. Some deeds might not be as tangible as gifts wrapped
in beautiful designs, but if you share them with your love ones, it
will make them just as happy. Therefore, one gift does not make much
difference in the final analysis. It is the commitment to live a truly
Christian life, not only on Christmas Day but every day.
Kahit hindi Pasko tayo'y magbigayan, hindi lang sa salita lalona sa
gawa.
From an historical
perspective point of view alone, there is a uniqueness, which sets
Christmas apart from all other holidays. For once, the fulfillment
of the prophecies did historically take place in the birth in Bethlehem.
And not only did all prophecies cease, but there was a discontinuance
of sacrifices. If we need a Savior or Redeemer then two thousand years
ago, we need Christ today not only on Christmas Day but everyday who
will drive the buyers and sellers from our new temples of corruption
and evil. In these times of terrorism we need a Christ who will restore
moral indignation and peace. We need someone who will make us hate
evil and corruption with a passionate intensity and love goodness
to a point where we can drink death like water.
It was in this
context that my wife and I humbly realized the utmost significance
and importance of our participation in the celebration of the Philippine
Christmas season when we came home last year from the 16th of December
2001 to the 6th of January 2002, the Epiphany, or the Three Kings
Day. We joined the locals in their celebration like piously attending
9-day Simbang Gab-I or the Midnight Mass. We did this despite our
parish church, San Pedro de Bautista Church in San Francisco del Monte,
aka SFDM, was overflowing with parishioners that some remained standing
outside the church.
My wife being
an excellent cook, we enjoyed a lot going around every food and sweets
stalls along the sidewalks, inspecting the delicacies from the corner
of F. Bautista and San Pedro de Bautista to the gate of the church
where decorations of multi-colored bright lanterns of every shape
and size start. As far as I could recall there were suman of all shapes,
sizes wrapped of banana and coconut leaves, bibingka still hot in
crock ovens, puto and puto bungbong, kutchinta, dinug-an, lechon the
leche, oranges and apples, lakatan, seniorita, grapes, siopao, enzalada,
lansones, mangoes, ripe and sliced semi-ripe mangoes with ready bago-ong
and lecheyas. Yes, indeed, there was a wide spectrum of miouth-watering
delicacies and desserts.
The Mass was usually
celebrated with at least three priests assisting. Several parishoners
brought many gifts with multi-colored bright wrappers to the Parish
priest during the offertory.
On the Media Noche, all pews were fully occupied except one that was
laden with gifts, but incredible as it may seem, the pew was cleared
by the lady servers, and they graciously allowed us to be comfortably
seated. Initially we politely refused the offer, but at their insistence
with cajoling smile, we relented. It was the sweetest gift we received
that Yuletide Season.
As our humble
home is exactly in between the Roman Catholic Church and the Public
Market of 'Frisco, a distance of less than 100 meters, going to the
market and the church was no problem. Hence, we saw to it that it
was appropriately decorated with Christmas trimmings. This we put
on our big water fountain and the grotto of Mama Mary at the corner
of the street.
On New year's
day, it was a different story: Despite the fact that there was existing
strict prohibition against exploding powerful firecrackers, like the
bawang, and rockets, aka kuetes, the celebration of
the New Year, the celebration would not be complete without the war-like
atmosphere of blinding and suffocating smoke and continuous rapid
ear-splitting explosions almost everywhere from the early dawn of
3lst December 2001. Going out in the early evening of the New Year
eve would be tantamount to trouble or disaster. In fact, just before
midnight very few dared walk the streets.
For our part,
we gladly lighted multi-colored sizzling candles in our enclosed front
yard with the water fountain shooting intermittent air-spraying raindrops
adding sensation by the flashing Christmas bulbs and locally made
star-shaped lanterns made of seashells.
Then to add more
racket to the almost pandemonium air, the burglar alarm was switched
on and my son, Bob, played the Yamaha organ to the maximum volume.
This went on almost uninterruptedly up to the early dawn of the New
Year.
When I stepped out of the house to survey our surrounding the following
morning, I could not believe my sleepy eyes to so much trash and debris
that I could hardly see the asphalted streets. I said to myself this
is just to tough a job for the poor garbage collectors. But, that
pile of garbage was not collected until the following week.
This is in a nutshell
the Christmas-Pinoy style we had the last time we went home.
Tang Ponso
