While the major Asian cities expat communities, malls, and restaurants celebrate and embrace Christmas, there's only one country, the Philippines, whose majority of citizens honor the religious element of the Holiday. Three hundred years of Spanish colonization and influence resulted in Catholicism being the country's dominant religion. Every town seems to have a magnificent cathedral and each neighborhood, called a Barangay, has it's own small place of worship. The Philippines has eighty million Catholics, the third highest total in the world (behind Brazil and Mexico). On Sunday's the church is filled with practitioners; on the Christmas Eve Midnight Service the church overflows with at least 1,000 children running around the open spaces outside.
The Christmas Eve service was a bit of a marathon...the first hour was filled with song and dance routines performed by various choir groups. The Midnight Service started around 11:45 and was a full program with all attendees participating in communion.
The days leading up to Christmas featured several birthdays (mine included) and family gatherings so the Christmas day lunch was actually a bit subdued to these earlier celebrations. On December 23 we went to a barangay sing competition. It was a bit hectic with 100's of little kids running around and screaming. From here we headed to a Grandparent's house for a birthday celebration which featured a roast pig and several other dishes. I was full for the next couple of days after gorging at this party. |
On Christmas Day we went to a neighbor's house for Christmas lunch. The lunch covered the main Filipino food groups: Pork, Fish, Rice, Spanish (taquitos and empanadas) and American Fusion (sweet spaghetti and fried chicken, which could also be a Chinese influence). As always there is more food than anyone could possible eat and with a full stomach we headed off to a brief round of Karaoke at a "Bar" around the corner. After a few beers it was time for an afternoon nap. It was then a relatively light roast chicken dinner.
While most homes seemed to have a Christmas tree, on Christmas morning there were not any presents underneath or gift unwrapping. There was a large spinning Santa Claus display at the mall, however, my understanding is that most Filipino children do not believe that a guy flies around the world on a sleigh delivering presents - I'm not sure whether it's a cultural thing, a warm weather thing, or a disposable income thing, or a combination of all three. Gift giving tended to consist of small presents to children at family gatherings and a gift exchange at a neighborhood school. The kids in the Philippines do not seem to be too preoccupied with toys and are able to make a game out of anything and everything - it can make for exhaustive afternoons.
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One of the more endearing (at least at first) Filipino Christmas traditions involves carolers - throughout the day and night wandering groups of children and adults appear at the end of the driveway to sing a few Christmas favorites although the song of choice always seemed to be "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The rub is that you as the song recipient are expected to hand over a few pesos to the carolers. The allure of the activity wears off a little after the same groups stop every night and others are kind of mailing it in - it's a bit like a teenager showing up for trick-or-treating. Every once in a while a few large and talented groups would appear and rekindle the Christmas Spirit. The Christmas song of the season seemed to be Thank You, Ang Babait Ninyo.