Poetry&Stuffby
MARNE KILATES
MARNE
S
KRIPTS
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
Season's Greetings
NOTES ON THE FILIPINO CHRISTMAS
SAID TO BE the longest Yule season in the world, the Philippine Christmas lasts usually from the first of December to New Year’s Day. It is also perhaps the most colorful and richly lighted, especially with the traditions of hanging the parol or Christmas lantern, the Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass, which are uniquely Filipino. Or at least the said season has been layered with lots of Filipino colorings. (Similar traditions may be observed in Mexico and South American countries, which have come under hundreds of years of the Spanish conquista, or in the case of Mexico, because the Philippines was in a trade and cultural interchange with it, in direct trade of goods, language, and many other things, during three decades of the Galleon Trade.)
CLOCKWISE: Top, the parol; Christmas stalls, Sambaing Gabi, pictures from the Lantern Festival.
Many people ask why the Simbang Gabi is so-named. Well, the term specifically refers to the darkness of the hour of night the mass is said. In Spanish it is more accurately called Misa de Gallo, or “Mass at Cockcrow.” The other name is Misa de Aguinaldo or the Mass of Gifts. The mass may also be said at early evening, e.g. seven o’clock p.m., in which case its referred to as an “anticipated” mass. Add to the religious ritual the putting up of stalls in the premises or near surroundings of the church, where special Christmas goodies like puto bumbong, bibingka are sold and served. The former is a rice cake steam-cooked in bamboo tubes while the latter is a non-baked pastry cooked over-and-under live coals.
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All this are done under the glow and glittering lights of the parol (farol in the original Spanish), now with a variety of designs apart from the traditional five-pointed star. A plethora of shapes and fancy elaborations on the star is the attraction of the Lantern Festival in Pampanga province, the home of artisans not only of the parol. The town of Betis is famous for furniture makers and wood carvers, and the sculptors of saints, retablos, and other ecclesiastical images. Shown here are pictures of the Lantern Festival.
Needless to say, the tradition is observed nationwide and towns and provinces try to outdo each other in their Christmas décor. Inevitably, the Philippine Christmas has not been spared by the onslaught of Americanization. There is the shortcut history of the Philippines which says, “three hundred years of the Spanish convent, fifty years of Hollywood.” The Simbang Gabi, the parol, bibingka, and puto bumbong inevitably are not spared from the competition with fruit cake, White Christmas, and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. Maligayang Pasko sa lahat! Merry Christmas! (The Midnight Masses start on Dec. 16, and goes on for nine nights until Dec. 24.)
Marne Kilates
20 December 2021
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