Our Desk | Is it Christmas yet?

Lynzy Valles

The Philippine Consulate General held its Christmas party for the Filipino community on Sunday – a community that has been the butt of jokes about it celebrating the festive season once the “ber” months kick off.
In the Philippines, we usually start to play Christmas songs in the mall, supermarkets and streets once it hits September – three months earlier than the actual celebration.
Around this time, Christmas sales and other holiday promos start to appear in our e-mails, as well as great price deals in supermarkets for food that we usually have on Christmas Eve, including ham and quezo de bola.
Social media users are also reminded that September has started when memes of the country’s favorite Christmas songwriter Jose Mari Chan and even Mariah Carey appear as one scrolls down their news feed.
No one really knows when this kind of tradition started among Filipino households – but for sure, this is the community’s favorite festive season back home.
Christmas lights, decorations and hymns start to fill up the street – particularly in big cities and districts.
The yuletide season is largely celebrated across the country. Data shows that 90% of Filipinos are Christians – the majority of whom are Catholics who consider their faith a significant part of their lives.
That is why I reckon the consulate makes sure that it does not fail to host its own Christmas party to accommodate those who are far away from home.
The community always finds ways to celebrate its traditional parties including preparing the traditional festive food, playing a variety of games and of course, singing ballads on karaoke machines.
It is also considered significant for families to be complete during this festive season.
Many overseas Filipino workers go back home to the Philippines in the middle of December as “many” of their family members (“many” almost always includes the neighbors) wait at the airport with a homemade welcome sign.
However, some remain in the city, as aside from not being able to go home due to work schedules, the price of plane tickets during this season is high.
Thus, during December, remittances from all across the globe to the Philippines remain high.
Last year, personal remittances from overseas Filipinos registered a record high of 3.2 billion U.S. dollars in December 2018, up 3.6% year-on-year – the highest annual level to date.
State bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas previously noted that the growth was driven by remittance inflows from land-based overseas Filipinos with work contracts of one year or more and remittances from both sea-based and land-based OFs with work contracts of less than one year.
Also for Filipinos – particularly Catholics – it is significant that they complete the nine days of Misa de Gallo – where believers attend church every night until Christmas Eve.
There is also a folk belief suggesting that God will grant the wish of anyone who hears all nine-dawn masses.
In Macau, the Filipinos do not forget to attend their churches for Missa de Gallo, their most important Christmas tradition.
Introduced by the Spanish friars in the 18th century to the Filipino farmers, the tradition of Simbang Gabi has continuously evolved in the Philippines through centuries of practice, and now Macau has access to this part of Filipino culture through the migrant workers that live in the MSAR.
As previously reported by the Times, with the support of the Filipino priests, three dawn masses have been held prior to Christmas day.
With two weeks to go before the nine-day mass commences, I’m pretty sure many Filipinos again will flock to their churches every night with a glimpse of hope that their wishes will be granted, and their faith will be honored.