Christmas in our isles, same time next year

How we look forward to the holidays, whence we find reason to give and receive, forgive and forget, drink and be merry. How we fill it with meaning and message for young and old. How we see in celebration new blessing and renewal to spice up our workaday lives. Life in our isles without Christmas is unimaginable. (Continued from Monday; first published 1978 in TV Times magazine)

Dec. 24 and 31 are the season’s busiest days – preparing food for the coming feasts. In Barrio Capulaan, Villasis, Pangasinan, the womenfolk cook a black-rice delicacy, deremen or inlubi. Young glutinous palay, still milky in the chaff, is burnt over smoldering bamboo halves. While still hot, the palay is pestled and winnowed clean of chaff. Children gather round fascinated as the women sway to the strum of a coconut shell fiddle, cutibeng.

Laboriously-prepared Yuletide fare are never laid to waste. Families partake of the Dec. 24 noche buena and Dec. 31 media noche in superstitious solemnity. The affairs signify thanksgiving, solidarity, prosperity. During the family reunions, among Tagalogs, the most prosperous tio or tia shower newly minted coins as children and adults scramble for possession. The coins, or sura, are kept for good luck.

The inventory of Yuletide food conjures many a childhood memory: jamon, queso de bola, suman, malagkit, salabat, tsokolate. In pre-inflation times castañas and grapes were found on tables of most middle-class families. These days they are content with undersized apples and oranges, kiat-kiat.

Christmas food varies by region. Northern Luzon folk have kilawen, papaitan, lechon kawali, dinaldalem, kaldereta and pacpac (crispy fried pig ears), along with delicacies linapet, tupig, bibingka, kaskaron and tamales nga ipon. Warays and Bicolanos prepare humba, dinuguan, adobo, balisoso and ibos. In Panay noche buena is never complete without puto-puti, kalamay-hati, bandi and baebae. Misamis holiday fare consists of sotanghon with torta, kalderetang kambing, yema, and pastillas. In Cebu haleyang ube, morcon and biko top off the meal. Liquor is present in all. The overflow of food and wine is directly proportionate to the amount of Christmas bonus.

Christmas and New Year come with a bang. Filipinos blend the merriment of Christmas with the noisemaking of New Year. Midnight sparklers, bamboo cannons, fireworks greet both days.

As merrymaking dies down children gather round the Christmas tree to open presents from parents, ninongs, ninangs – sometimes from Santa Claus and the Three Kings, though they’re not very popular among country bumpkins.

 Province kids spend Christmas and New Year visiting relatives and godparents who might have forgotten to deliver gifts. Benefit balls are held at the town plaza on the night of the 25th or the 1st by religious and civic organizations. Teenagers and olds display the latest dance craze from Manila.

Non-Christians observe the season too. Igorots of Sinapaoan and Bantinan, Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya, celebrate Christmas Eve with a much awaited cañao. Food and rice wine, tapuy, spice up a night of dancing. Festivity starts with the chieftain summoning elders to a palaver where richer clansmen are tapped to shoulder feasting expenses. They donate cows, pigs, rice, ubi and jars of aged tapuy.

To the Kalasans of Aritao, Christmas is a communal affair. Every family head contributes cash or kind; girls decorate the chieftain’s house and premises with flowering vines gathered from the forest. After an intoxicated ritual of chanting and dancing, they dine as a community.

Mindanao Muslims observe Maulid un Nabi, Birth of the Prophet. Like Christmas of Christians, it is for them a season for forgiveness. Jealousies and grievances are deferred; an atmosphere of generosity pervades. The imam is seen at the town square showering children with coins and candy. If well-to-do, he may treat the town to a pagjamo or blowout.

Season’s greetings are expressed in different tongues – linguistic proof of the day’s significance to Filipinos. The Tagalog Maligayang Pasko is Naimbag a Pascuayo in Ilocano, Napia nga Pascua in Ibanag, Maugmang Paskuwa in Bicolano, Maupay nga Pasko in Waray, Malipayon nga Pascua in Hiligaynon, Malipayong Pasco in Cebuano.

On Holy Innocents’ Day, Dec. 28, country tots in flowing blankets roam the barrio, singing tunes similar to those sung during pangangaluluwa on All Saints and All Souls Days. The songs beg for prayers and, more importantly, treats and goodies. The olds had better comply lest chicken in their yard serve as unwilling feasts and Christmas lanterns get pricked with holes. In Alcala, Cagayan, and Pakil, Laguna, laundry, benches, ladders and other portable items left outside the kubo (hut) find their way to the barrio square, victims of April Fool’s-style pranks.

The Feast of the Three Kings is Pasko ng Matatanda among Tagalogs and Bicolanos. Elders take time out from house chores to visit relatives, compadres, comadres, and friends. The spirit of gift-giving extends to this last day of the season, as richer kinsmen dole cash to needy ones.

As in the Panunuluyan, the Magi are depicted in folk drama in Gapan (Nueva Ecija), Malolos (Bulacan), and Gasan (Marinduque). A street play reenacts the search for the Christ Child by following the path of the Christmas star, actually the biggest and most impressive parol in town. They ride about on mules until the star disappears near the designated Herod, seated on a throne at the church patio. Herod demands them to reveal Baby Jesus’ location. After which, the star reappears, the Wise Men continue their trek, and finally find the Holy Family in the kubol at the other end of the church courtyard. Herod, meanwhile, orders his guards to slay all newborn baby boys, whereupon children scamper for the safety of their mothers’ saya. An avenging angel casts a spell on Herod, who turns mad and goes around town laughing wildly – and grabbing free drinks at carinderias.

As the 22 long days of the Filipino Yuletide season draw to a close, sleepy towns and distant barrios recover from the tiring festivity. Visiting relatives pack up for the trip back to the city, while the peasant folk shake off the hangover to resume the daily grind of farm work.

Some do not bother to take down the parol, letting it hang the year round, a sad and forlorn reminder to last them the next 12 months.

A prosperous New Year to all.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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