Renxkyoko Iglesias here, wishing you all a Happy New Year ! !
As the title says….. to see how the Philippines welcomes the new year, click on the video. ( you can start at 2:12, I think that’s 11: 55 PM )
And it’s not some government – sponsored spectacular fireworks display……. anyone with a pocketful of change can buy fireworks and shoot them up on New Year’s eve. The one on the video is just a small area of Metro -Manila. The fireworks on the ground are worse. The Judas belt….. sheesh .
My own father would start buying firecrackers ( yep, also that Judas belt ) in September. * shakes head *
Even though there are so many injuries , the government can never make this illegal….. it’s like making eating adobo illegal, too.
By the way, international flights going to the Philippines are cancelled on New Year’s day. ….. the haze over Manila is deadly for arriving planes.
Over here in the US, we can hear a pin drop on New Year’s eve. It was a culture shock on our first New Year’s eve in the US.
Oh, well. Happy New Year, everyone. And to my Filipino readers, be safe.
Hello, Renxkyoko Iglesias here, wishing you peace, happiness, prosperity , and good health in 2017 and the years to come.
So I promised to post something about how Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines.
To start off, a joyful Filipino Christmas music. maybe you can click it , and listen while reading the rest of the post… yes ? We learn a country’s culture through its music. So, click , please ? The title is Kampana ng Simbahan or Church Bell, or Bell of the Church
How does the Philippines celebrate Christmas ?
a) It’s the longest holiday celebration in the world. Everyone starts decorating right after All Saints’ Day ( Filipinos call Todos los Santos , Nov. 1, which is a holyday in the Philippines , no work, no school, so the people can go to the gravesites of the deceased loved ones )
b) Officialy, celebration starts on Dec. 16, at 5 AM, the start of the 9 – day Mass, called Misa de Gallo ( Mass at cock’s crow ). Filipinos go to Mass at 5 AM, everyday until Dec.24, …… then , another Mass at midnight of Christmas eve. Filipinos look forward to this, that’s why all the churches are full. I haven’t been to one, though I remember getting woken up by a loud but lively marching band playing Christmas music , ” marching ” around the subdivision, at 4 in the morning ! They are hired to wake everyone up , that’s the idea. lol
I am not exaggerating when I say the churches are full. lol
c) Then after the Midnight Eve mass, they eat a midnight meal with the family ( and friends /relatives ) , which they call Noche Buena ( Good Night ). So what are the traditional Filipino
Noche Buena dishes ?
Ham and Queso de Bola ( Edam Cheese )
Paella ( rice with shrimps, mussels, crab, chicken, etc )
Fruitcake…… I know we, in the US, make fun of this cake, but for some reason, Filipinos love it.. My mother tells that my grandma ( who has a baking business ) used to make thousands of fruitcakes every year . They were orders from the biggest drug company in the Philippines which were given as Christmas gifts to clients , usually huge food baskets. I did bake several loaves of fruitcakes for Thanksgiving….. we still have 2 left , saved for Christmas, one month after, ha ha ha . Eh. I brush the fruitcake with brandy once a week, and that’s a good thing, right ? He he
Ooooh, the glazed fruits, the nuts….. yum.
d) Lechon , if they can afford it. Here in the US, we make lechon kawali ( roasted pork belly )
And then the usual suspects…. the desserts….. leche flan , cassava cake, rice cakes, fruit salad, etc, etc. etc.
I’ll post our own Noche Buena after Christmas.
This is all for now. MerryChristmas !
And so I finish this up with another charming and joyful Philippine Holiday song… ( I can’t even pronounce the title …. it’s about the twinkling Christmas lights.
Firstoff, I would to greet everyone a Happy Christmas ( to Christians ) and Happy Holidays ! ( to non – Christians ).
Whoa ! ! Sorry it’s a huge photo…. can’t make it small, for some reason.
I think my mind hit a brick wall. The greetings above has been sitting in my draft folder for 3 days now, but I still cannot think what else about Christmas that I can write about. Anyway, I ‘ve been reading about how other countries celebrate Christmas. I was surprised that even non-Christian countries like Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore have their business establishments ( malls, etc ) all bedecked with Christmas holiday decorations.
I do not begrudge them the excellent business they’ll get from people that do celebrate Christmas. I am, in fact, glad that this Christmas holiday tradition is not banned in their countries, unlike in some countries the names of which I shall not mention. Be that as it may, I feel a bit sad that the real meaning of Christmas is deeply buried in the murky sea of commercialism.
For some reason, Christmas always reminds me of the ” The Little Match Girl. ” I seriously want to erase this off my mind.
So, how does a family of Filipino- Americans celebrate Christmas ?
We try to keep the Filipino tradition close to our hearts. We attend the Midnight Mass on Dec. 24 and partake of the Noche Buena ( Midnight dinner ) after Mass.
Below are my folks going to Midnight Mass last year.
It is a pity that our Christmas Star is gone now, a victim of winter storm years ago.. The Christmas star Filipinos call parol ( Star of Bethlehem ) is an iconic symbol of Christmas in and unique to the Philippines. Every house has one hanging on their windows. Check out the holiday décor in the first photo. I ‘m 100% sure a Filipino designed that. You can see Christmas stars hanging from the ceiling. And why am I sure it is a Filipino? Well, there are millions of Filipinos working in the Middle East. They say business in the Middle East will stop if all the Filipino workers will stop working even for one day. Those who have been to the Middle East, especially Dubai, know that. About a quarter of the Philippines’ GNP come from OFWs. ( Overseas Filipino Workers )
But I digress.
Parol vendor below.
I think I need to write about the Philippines ‘ unique Christmas tradition on my next post, hopefully just before Cjristmas Day., fyi.
First off, I would like to thank Nayana Nairfor giving me an award, The Mystery Blogger Award. However, I have to forego the rules and just answer Nayana Nair‘s food- for -thought questions. So, without further ado……
a) What is your current favorite song ? I’m old school, old soul. To me, music is melody. I don’t pay attention to lyrics. Do the classics have lyrics? Beautiful sound and melody give me goosebumps, and this may sound corny and emo, but listening to good music makes me a bit teary-eyed, sometimes. Even the current rock and pop songs have nothing on the old classic rock. * sings * Wake me up, before you go, go , la la la la…
I do like Justin Bieber’s.
b) Most rude you have ever been ? I don’t think I have been rude intentionally . I believe I am a nice, pleasant person, careful with words, mindful of manners, courteous, and very polite ( My mother calls me todo pasa ). In other words, I’m perfect. Take that to mean as repressed. That’s why , I explode.
c) One silly superstition that you actually believed in as a child ? Two, actually….. the existence of duendes ( leprechauns , goblins ) and aswangs. ( shape shifters that eat human livers and fetuses of pregnant women ). Those little mounds of dirt and soil ( anthills ? ) are supposedly the duendes’ abodes. Pass by their homes without asking permission and ignore them, you do that at your own peril. Common punishment is explosive diarrhea.
About the aswangs……. they are humans by day and monsters at night, like our cousin , Violeta, a very pretty lass from Aklan and Capiz ( two places in the Philippines where most aswangs live, and where my maternal grandparents came from , ahem )….. uhm , about Violeta ….. she had to move to another place to escape the nasty rumours about her, which my mother suspected were spread by rejected suitors. Nevertheless, my grandparents wouldn’t eat anything that came from Violeta’s family.
I was watching one of these British crime series, and in one episode, the detectives talked about aswangs very casually. The people in a small, remote English village believed the ” killings ‘ were perpetrated by aswangs.
One form of aswang is a human that can separate his/ her torso from the rest of the body and fly.
When I was a kid living in the Philippines, aswangs did terrify me.
d) One word that you use most in your conversation ? I guess, ” really ” ?
e) What is one good thing and a bad thing about getting awards ? Good thing…… it’s a blog post. Bad thing…….. I don’t have time to acknowledge all the awards that I get. Sorry ! I’m trying to rectify this, hence, this post.
This is all for now. Thank you for reading folks. I hope you find this post interesting.
I’ve been nominated twice for Mystery Blogger Award by livepulchritudinously and Nayan Nair . However, I couldn’t find Nayan Nair’s link to that award, so Nayan Nair, please send me that link again.
Anyway, here are my answers to livepul……. questions.
a) What was the last movie you saw ? I’ve been watching tons of movies on Netflix and Hulu. I am watching Body of Proof, a crime series, right at this moment.
b) What is your favorite thing about winter ? I get to wear my cool boots and winter jackets…. and most importantly, Christmas.
c) Do you have any pets ? We have 2 dogs , one of which is my own, a pitbull. No one wanted to adopt a puppy pitbull at the animal shelter, so I did. Her name’s Taylor, and I really love her.
d) What was the last book you read ? Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
e) Are you allergic to anything ? Oh, sweet mother of pink, it’s weird that I get asked about allergies. I just had an allergy attack at work last Friday, right after Thanksgiving Day. I got worried they might fire me . Good thing I tested negative on milk ( O_O ! ) , more specifically on almond and soy milk. I work at a dairy company, for Pete’s sakes. Well, it is still a mystery what triggers it. Last time, I suspected it was the red food color of chorizo.
This is it. Again, thank you for the award, @pulchritudineously.
Now, as per Ren’s tradition…… I post pictures of our Thanksgiving feast every year. This year, however, there is really nothing much to show. The family did not really feel like celebrating, because of * cough * election issues * cough * . But, I did not renege on my promise to do some cooking. I made all the desserts…. heck, I even baked the chocolate cake, angel food cake, and fruit cake from scratch. No store – bought cakes this year. And of course, I cooked my specialty, paella.
Six main dishes……. paella, beef mechado, lechon kawali ( boiled , then fried pork ribs with liver sauce ) , lumpia ( wrapped meat ), ham ( instead of turkey ), and honey roast chicken. Desserts are biko ( rice cake ) , fruit salad , chicken-macaroni salad, leche flan ( egg custard made of egg yolks ) angel food cake ( I used the egg whites …. leche flan and angel food cake always go together ), fruit cake ( from my gandmother’s recipe ), chocolate cake.
Oh, wait, my father bought pumpkin pie. Okay, one store-bought food. I don’t like pumpkin pie, by the way.
Am a Molecular Microbiology student, love to read books, and I play the violin. 
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renxkyoko
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