PASKO SA PILIPINAS

     Christmas..


When we see, hear, speak of the word, memories flood our minds. We look forward to this day as the best day n our lives. Comes flashing the childhood memories, happy moments with our loved ones. receiving gifts, great and small, things that we wanted the whole year long. Longing for the usual things that binds us most, especially loving each other.


Here in the Philippines, we have probably the longest Christmas celebration ever in the world. Carols were played over the radio on the onset of the BER months. As early as September, too, decors had been placed all over the houses, streets were lighted with glittering lights, and each child practices the carols to sing to the every neighborhood. The sweetest smiles come to afore. The spirit of Christmas is felt in every corners of the malls. How glad! How amazing! Lanterns were being displayed. Multitudes of lights flood in each and every home. It is a FIESTA!

 I remember that, during my childhood years, Inang and I are going to the church to hear the dawn mass, the misa de gallo, simbang gabi. I could still smell the sweet scent of the dama de noche as we pass by the streets in the 9-day church service. We wake up as early as 3 in the morning, I never take a bath that time because it was so cold, i just wash my face and brush my teeth and am ready to go. Inang would tag me along because I was the religious child in the family. My siblings would not come with us. It was the most exciting experience I ever had in my childhood. And inside the Church, people filled every space, and because it was cold, I unusually liked the warmth of the body next to me. Each and every morning that happens, and after the service, Inang and I would go to the nearest bakery and buy pan de sal, so hot that the butter would easily melt.

 As we go home, we would walk again for a kilometer or so, still dark, but I am not afraid though because Inang is with me always. We would talk about my dreams, and with her comforting words of wisdom, she would say the most beautiful words I have ever heard in my life. Words of encouragement and love. Arriving at home, Tatay would have boiled water for the coffee, and there and then, the whole family would have shared the hot pan de sal, butter oozing from it, as we gorged happily, and plan what we are going to do for the day.

 I always remember the best noche buena that we have had. Since it was lean month for my Inang and Tatay to earn money, still they have afforded to buy us some gifts. I was lucky to have  a toy gun, with pellets, and my brother and other siblings had a share of their own. During the 9th day of the misa de gallo, me and Inang went to the church to celebrate the mass, and I have heard beautiful carols by the church choir. oh, how lovely they sing the songs. It really uplifts the heart and the soul to a new and renewed feeling! The mass has ended, we went in peace.

 We left the church filled with gaiety, and hope for the next year. For more blessings. As usual, we went to the bakery and bought the same amount of pan de sal, and since Inang and Tatay liked balut, they bought for us. We laughed because it was so simply amazing for us to have that balut in our midst for noche buena. As we arrived home, we could not wait for the time that we have to eat together, celebrating Christmas with simplicity, hearts on fire, with love and caring for each other. The best and the tastiest Christmas. The 25th of December, Christmas morning, Tatay dressed the native chicken and we had a simple salo-salo together.

 Many years have passed and the experience of that Balut Christmas still becomes fresh everytime I celebrate the season. How wonderful it is to have parents like them, sacrificing each centavo for the welfare and enjoyment of their young! Today, the celebration of the season may not be as simple as my childhood years, it had become more complicated, intricate, sometimes to the point of being absurd. There is no more balut on the table, no more pan de sal, no more coffee. And no more parents to share all these things present...not simple but complicated.

 But still, me and my sister and my pamangkins would somehow try to fill in the gap of longing for my parents, and as if they were still here to celebrate with us. The only thing that has changed it the kind of celebration we have had... no more no less... they are still a part of the celebration for in our hearts, they will be here forever.

 As we celebrate the day Christ was born in Bethlehem, we should always remember that sumptuous foods, glittering lights, beautiful decorations, new things, and a lot more that has become a symbol for Christmas to us are nonetheless, unimportant if we are not gong to celebrate as the way it should be. Giving, forgiving, love and care... should be the first things that will remind us of Christmas, as the way Jesus Christ, in His innocence have exemplified in us. These material things would soon pass, but the true spirit of Christmas would always be in our hearts.


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERY ONE.