celebrating christmas
here in singapore, shops have their holiday trimmings up, tempting people to start their buying sprees. of course, the earlier they start offering christmas wares, the better it would be for the sales. sure, we’ve gone with the flow ourselves, and started buying christmas decos as we’re starting from zilch. and though i’ve made our coffee table a bit more festive, most of what we’ve bought are still in storage. i don’t know. there’s just something not right with christmassing in november. especially in a place where the majority of the population aren’t even christians. i can’t shake the feeling that there’s something awkward - well, kinda fake to put it bluntly- about celebrating christmas here in singapore.
in the philippines, it used to be that christmastime is church-centric, dominated by the misa de gallo, a 9-day series of masses conducted at dawn. home decors would consist of mostly nativity scenes and lanterns (parol) crafted from bamboo sticks and japanese rice paper (papel de hapon) and crepe paper. children would go caroling from house to house, singing christmas songs, with a maracas-like instrument made from strung softdrink bottle caps as accompaniment. these are scenes i remember from my childhood though. nowadays, very few complete the 9-day simbang gabi, puto bumbong is available all year round, carolers are just annoying, and on christmas day, parishes hold misa de gallo by the hour even up to 9-10 am. gotta fill the coffers, i suppose. philippine chistmas traditions are rapidly fading away, much like how the pangangaluluwa is giving way to halloween trick-or-treating.
christmastime in germany, on the other hand, is one of the things i appreciate (and miss) the most. sure, there is just about as much shopping frenzy in december there as anywhere else, but at the same time, the christmas season is steeped in family- and child-oriented traditions. christmas markets, mulled wine, lebkuchen and stollen, advent calendar, songs and rhymes, wreathes and candles… these are just some of what everyone looks forward to, what people associate with christmas. not the trees, the parties or the gifts. family, that’s what it really is all about.
i miss my family in the philippines, but think i love spending christmas in germany more. unfortunately, we’re stuck here in singapore as i’ve put off booking tickets too late. arrgh.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
11 Responses to “celebrating christmas”
November 12th, 2007 at
Hi Ruth! Musta? Added you in my blogroll, hope you don’t mind….
November 12th, 2007 at
hey ruth. you’re right. spending Christmas in a non-Christian country is awkward. Here in Malaysia where majority of the people are Islam, you can also see almost all the malls will have Christmas deco and stuff… sometimes they even compete which malls have the biggest or the tallest Christmas tree! They basically take the opportunity and commerciallize Christmas.
November 12th, 2007 at
hi ruth, same sentiments here. i love pinas christmas pero mas alive ang tradition dito sa germany, esp we even use the hundred old recipe for the christmas cookies, kahit na yellowed and brittle na sya. esp with my german family here, very close sila and what with that two day christmas celebration, di ba? i was in bangkok, for how many christmases din, ganyan kalungkot din sa singapore kasi nga they are buddhists.. hayy
November 12th, 2007 at
oops, and of course, we have parols here in germany and the famous pampanga lantern, heheh. bitbit ko sila sa isang malaking box from manila to germany. worth it ang hassles…
November 13th, 2007 at
hay…just like you, mami-miss ko ang pasko sa Germany. Syempre dahil nandun ang family ko, and dahil labindalawang taon ko din namang nakasanayan ang pasko at bagong taon sa Alemanya. hayyy para tuloy kinukurot ang puso ko….
November 15th, 2007 at
I agree with you… tradition-filled ang Christmas dito sa Germany and very family-oriented but since I’m also quite immersed sa Pinoy community, nothing beats the hell out of puto-bungbong and Simbang Gabi… padalhan kita nang snow? hahaha
November 15th, 2007 at
mitch: oo naman.
janet: oo nga, mas weird nga siguro dyan sa malaysia. dito, lahat naman actually ng events commercialized hehe.. kakapanibago lang for me.
raqgold: yan ang miss ko the most, yung mga activities associated with certain seasons and events of the year. kahit ang weird ng end-result namin, we always hadfun making our kitchen a mess baking plätzchen! grabe, ang bigat kaya ng capiz lantern! pero am sure bongga yan dyan!
rhada: oo nga. pero big din naman ang pasko dyan sa states. it’s an opportunity to build new family traditions, ika nga.
karampot: yoko ng snow– yan ang di ko nami-miss haha! dominosteine na lang, haha!
November 17th, 2007 at
I think that this year I’ll never get into the Christmas spirit. The 25th will be a normal working day for a lot of people in Qatar. Although I have found some shops displaying Christmas trees and decors, I will still feel as though I’m breaking the rules if someone catches me walking along the mall with a bough of holly, fa la la lala, la la la la…
November 20th, 2007 at
pasko na naman…o kay tulin ng araw…paskong nagdaan, tila ba’t kung kailan lang…ngayon ay pasko dapat pasalamatan…ngayon ay pasko tayo ay mag-awitan! pasko! pasko! pasko na namang muli…tanging araw nating pinakamimithi…pasko! pasko! pasko na namang muli…ang pag-ibig naghahari…
ayan, napa-karoling tuloy ako. teka, bakit ba hindi natin naisip na mangaroling noon sa giessen? hehe. sana, memorable ang ating last christmas sa alemanya…
November 21st, 2007 at
we used to book our december tickets in may. grabe no? skyrocket ang fares when you book much, much closer to the holidays.
November 26th, 2007 at
I would want my daughter to experience Christmas in the Philippines sometime- at least, once in her life. Here in Colorado, it gets pretty lonely for me, as we do not have any close family around. And most of the time, the weather does not cooperate as far as going to visit family.