2021 came and went in a subdued manner, amidst the COVID19 Pandemic with its evolving, mutating variants from Alpha, Delta and the last one the Omicron and from an already virus fatigued population, how about a rumored Deltacron, which hopefully remains as a rumor. Time was, when the Holiday Season ushers in gaiety and fanfare but the end of 2021 marked the 2nd year of the Pandemic and with an administration bent on slaying the virus, a Quixotic quest, that is better fought by accommodation as with the H1N1 Swine flu which came in 2009 and is still with us. Let me just share an article which I wrote during the Holiday Season for PAAN before the Pandemic hit in 2018.

Remembrance of Christmas Time in the Philippines

It’s that time of the year again, Christmas Season is just around the corner, as we are reminded by the numerous Fil-Am Associations in Las Vegas about their Christmas Parties beginning on Dec. 1^st. Well, we’ll all pretend and be as accurate as the Theologians and the Bible could predict when Jesus Christ was born, announced with the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem to guide the Magi from the East. Filipinos ever as clever so as not to miss the blessed event, use a wide swath of the Calendar to initiate the celebration, sometimes going as far back as September, when the Christmas carols start playing on the radio.

Born in Mataas Na Kahoy, a small barrio tucked among the rice fields, which was once part of Cabanatuan City, our calendars could be forgiven, if my 4 year old memory could only remember, that our Christmas Season began when the Palay manually harvested and stack piled in a circle around a bamboo pole to dry, were ready for threshing. Usually there is only one thresher moving slowly from one rice field to the next, separating the stalks from the seeds and bagging the palay in burlap sacks. This is a festive occasion for us kids when our hard working farmer father, who we rarely see during our waking hours, brought us to one of our tenants’ rice field for the threshing. The unmistakable aroma of the harvested palay greeted us, which was a far cry from when the ground area for the threshing was prepared with fresh carabao dung, spread by bare feet and left to dry into a hard surface, making it easier to collect errant palay seeds during the threshing, using the tambong walis ( broom). Our special treat was eating the pinipig, the sticky rice prepared right there with the use of a giant wooden mortar (Lusong) and a pestle (Pambayo) to separate the chaff from the seed and flatten it. To our young wondering eyes, we watched the cadence and rhythmic 3 person interplay, as two guys alternately pounded while a lady deftly mixed the seeds with her bare hands.  Miraculously, her hands remained intact, safely evading those giant, dumb bell shaped wooden pestles between strokes. The pinipig was then placed in the bilao and by flipping it up against the wind separated the pinipig from the chaff. Fresh pinipig, unlike the modern, toasted, crackling ones you eat with halo-halo. A lone star shaped parol made up of bamboo sticks and papel de Japon, with 2 multicolored streamers at the bottom and lit by a small candle, hangs in the window and awaits us, as we came home.

When the Hukbalahap became too active and threatening, kidnapping and killing our uncle, we moved to the city proper, with a lone large Catholic Church, a novelty for us kids who didn’t remember setting foot in one, none in our barrio, we got baptized only by a traveling priest. Mother was very religious yet seldom went to church, doing her daily morning and evening prayers and novena on Sundays, only went on Christmas Eve. Settling in the city proper, maybe only 5-6 blocks from the church, sometimes you could hear the church bells as it tolled during the mass and religious occasions. We were introduced to the traditional Christmas Season, the Simbang Gabi which are masses celebrated early in the morning 3-5 am, starting on Dec.16^th and culminating with a midnight mass, Misa de Gallo, on Christmas Eve. In the Philippines, Christmas Season ends on Epiphany, on Jan. 6, the coming of the Three Kings bearing gifts for baby Jesus. In our neighborhood though, we kids expanded the season by starting to sing Christmas Carols during All Saints Day, on Nov. 1^st., the proceeds ended up usually in our local bar for meals or Tanduay or Manila Rum, which made me so sick one night that I vomited on the streets and woke up with a rash all over my body, the following morning. And that was probably a sober reminder to me from God, not to trivialize His message and avoid liquor.

Being the only Catholic Church in the city with a large congregation, the Misa de Gallo was celebrated in the open, paved area, which had a basketball court, to accommodate the large throng of parishioners who came. A long mass for kids who were way past their bedtime, only kept awake by the anticipation of the delights of bibingkas on banana leaves, the whistling ready puto bunbong, and suman after the mass. We come home for our traditional Noche Buena of Eggo Sandwich, Keso de Bola, Jamon, relyenong bañgus, pancit and freshly baked pan de sal. Of course those with money to spare will have lechon, apples and grapes and all kinds of sweets and beverages. We usually have hot Tsokolate, which came from cacao beans, cooked and ground to a sticky paste through the night.

Those were simple pleasures which we enjoyed with our closely knit families, nowadays however, they get lost in the glamour and glitz of the commercialization of Christmas. The lowly bamboo stick and papel have given way to the shiny capiz in all sizes and shapes, multicolored with dazzling array of light bulbs and LED lights, twinkling stars now advertising the Christian Homes in the neighborhood and for convenience and accommodation, celebrating Christmas in all the weekend days of Decmber, till the 25^th. And if you are really intent on showing your devotion to the Birth of Christ, we have professional Christmas Light installers, for a few hundred bucks, lighting it all the way to the rooftops and White Bearded Santa at $30-$75/hour coming to give gifts to the children, not through the chimneys but through the front doors..

Well folks, to each and everyone, let’s be bold and never mind the PC culture protestations of the non-believers, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

…H. M. Cruz, MD, FACS