Renxkyoko Iglesias here, hello !
First off, 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.
This is all for now folks.
Please check out my anime/manga blog at http://2megaworthitwordpresscomblog.wordpress.com/
Again, a Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays ! Peace and Goodwill to all !