MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS PAST. Since Miguel Lopez de Legazpi celebrated the first Pascua de Navidad in the Philippines sometime in 1565, Christmas became the most awaited fiesta in the country. The Christmas season in the Philippines is said to be the longest in the world because by tradition, at the start of the Ber months Christmas carols are played in public centers and holiday decorations are gradually put up in homes.
The traditional sights, scents and tastes associated with the Yuletide season bring a lot of nostalgia of endless crowds, celebrations, and coziness but because of the health risk brought by the Corona virus the festive mood of the season that we got used to doing changed this year. Here are curated memories of Christmas past:
CHRISTMAS CARDS. Fondest images of the Christmas season as a child were illustrations of local Christmas scenes on greeting cards. In early 1990s, my folks write lengthy notes to relatives abroad in Christmas cards with illustrations by the artists like E. Salonga and Cenon Rivera. An entire bulk of sealed envelops were sent through slow mail at the Manila Central Post Office.
Today, we receive holiday greetings through instant text messages and emails most of the time, in a form of copied or templated greetings. We seldom write Christmas cards in all seriousness and send them via the post office.
HOLIDAY ON ICE. Illustrations of Christmas in western cultures are depicted using snowflakes, Jack Frost, Frosty the Snowman, green elves in pointy shoes and a sleigh pulled by magical reindeers.
In tropical Philippines, the cool amihan breeze announces the Christmas season. Cultural shows that featured the dance of Sugarplum Fairy in the Nutcraker and the Holiday on Ice in Araneta Coliseum complimented the nippy weather. Popular among the masses were the mechanical puppets in COD shopping center. As a child, I recall that the ice skating rink in Megamall was the closest way to experience winter wonderland in Santa’s North Pole.
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. At the first week of December, the Christmas season gains momentum. The bonus-rich Filipinos start to crowd shopping malls and the peoples’ market in Divisoria to buy gifts, clothing, shoes, holiday food, and brand new things to adorn their homes.
In the olden days, Christmas shopping require separate trips to different places because certain things had to be bought according to tradition. During the prewar years for example, ready-made shoes and sandals were bought in Calle Gandara and one travels to Marikina for made to order leather pairs. Popular go to for pastries and sweets were La Perla in Plaza Santa Cruz and Palma de Mallorca in Intramuros. Imported fruits, dairy products like canned butter were sourced in cold storage warehouses along Calle Echague. Calle Escolta was the go to for window shopping for fashionable clothing and home furnishing. Popular stores were Berg Department Store, Estrella del Norte, and Puerta del Sol.
MISA DE AGUINALDO. The four weeks before Christmas is the preparation for the coming of the child Jesus of Bethlehem. During Advent, the theme of the gospel readings were about the terrifying events leading to the apocalypse and the homilies talked about repentance and conversion of hearts. Main altars of churches are decked with Christmas colors and a make-shift belen in one corner are adroned with pots of bright red poinsettias in lieu of freshly cut summer blooms.
By December 16, dawn masses were heard nine days before Christmas day. The tradition of misa de aguinaldo were introduced by the Spanish friars to accommodate the farmers who have to be on the fields during the harvest season. Nobody questioned this practice of hearing mass during ungodly hours in this modern times. Instead, locals associate this Christmas tradition with the granting of a wish upon completing the nine-day gift masses and swarming the puto-bumbong stalls after the service.
CHRISTMAS KAKANIN. There are over a hundred steamed, simmered, or baked kinds of kakanin. Every town and each region in the country has its singular creation. But during the Christmas season, the violet puto bumbong reigns supreme.
The principal ingredient of this Christmas kakanin is a violet rice called pirurutong. The violet and malagkit rice variety are mixed and steamed in narrow bamboo tubes called the bumbong. Traditionally, the cylindrical rice cake is served on banana leaf and it is topped with margarine, grated coconut, and brown sugar. In the olden days, the puto bumbong is usually taken with salabat or ginger tea. We love to partner the puto bumbong with Batangas brew of kapeng barako or that thick chocolate drink called by Padre Salvi in Noli as tsokolate-eh or tsokolate espeso.
PAROL STAR OF THE SUN GOD. Hanging a Christmas parol is a very old Filipino tradition. The star-shaped lantern recalls the bright Bethlehem star that guided the shepherds to the Child Jesus. It has been written in the book of Matthew that the bright star seen during the first Christmas Eve led the three wise men to a manger in Bethlehem. In 1603, Johannes Kepler suggested the Bethlehem Star was a great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. This planetary dance reoccurred hundreds of years later during the winter solstice of December 21, 2020.
Primitive men believed that the waning sun died during the winter solstice and begins to wax again and resume its upward climb. For ancient Romans, December 25 is the birth of the sun god Mithras. An anting anting medallion in Quiapo has the text Horam JHS Natum that links to the hour of Jesus’ birth with the image Mithras in the center.
CRECHE. Christmas trees were not considered as the proper Christmas adornment until the 1920s. The oldest Christmas symbol in the Philippines is the belen or creche. The focal figures in the creche are Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus that is added to the scene on Christmas day. The figures of the three magis are added later on during their feast day.
The tradition was introduced by Saint Francis de Assisi in 1223 who celebrated Christmas using live donkeys and oxen. By the 17th century, the custom of putting up a creche in one corner of the home reached Spain and spread around the Philippines in the 18th century.
EPILOGUE: TULOY NA TULOY PA RIN ANG PASKO. The year 2020 will forever be remembered by our generation as the year that changed the way we live and how we celebrate the happiest season of all. But as the song goes Ngunit kahit na anong mangyari. Ang pagibig sana ay maghari. Sapat ng si Jesus ang kasama mo. Tuloy na tuloy pa rin ang Pasko.
Travel on Foot is wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous and Healthy New Year!
– Christmas Day 2020