BRIDGING THE GAP
The traditional mode of Christmas celebration in WV
The way Christmas is celebrated in Western Visayas and the rest of the archipelago has undergone a lot of changes since early times. As everyone knows, the Christmas celebration in the country started with the coming of the Spanish missionaries and the introduction of Christianity. It became especially popular and widespread in the 19th century and onwards. When the Americans took control, certain changes came about in the Filipinos' celebration of the birth of the Messiah. In more recent times, due to the advent of sophisticated technology and the emphasis on globalization, more changes have found their way into how people commemorate the coming of Christ.
For the most part of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Christmas spirit at home focused on the belen or the nativity scene. In fact, during the December month, the angelus or the early evening prayer of the family revolved around the belen. Most households displayed the manger scene with the baby Jesus in it, and Mary and Joseph in the background.
Outside and inside of the house, but mainly on the windows, were lanterns of various colors. These lanterns were mostly home-made, using bamboo and made attractive by the use of Japanese paper or crepe paper. They were generally lighted with candles inside in the rural areas and electric bulbs in towns and cities where electricity was available. The most common lanterns were star-shaped symbolizing the bright star that served as the reference point to the birthplace of Jesus.
Caroling by small groups of children and adults orby a combination of both was also popular in the past. The accompanying musical instruments were usually the gitara, banjo, bajo, and the sanahas, a contraptions made of softdrink caps that serves as castanets. The popular Christmas carols in the 1800s were those in Spanish taught by the priests and a sprinkling of songs in Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a or Aklanon. By the first quarter of the 1900s, a spluttering of English carols, the most popular of which were Jingle Bells and Silent Night, Holy Night, began to reverberate in the cold air of the December nights all over Western Visayas.
Caroling, either during the Spanish or the American periods, took into consideration gifts or tokens for the sharing of the Christmas spirit andas a form of entertainment. The usual things that the carolers received in return for their singing were local delicacies, eggs, chickens and fruits, aside from cash.
A must during the Christmas season was the simbang gab-i, a special series of masses held early in the morning from December 16 to December 24, attended by both young and old. The festive atmosphere was very obvious even in the wee hours of the morning because right at the entrance of the church, a common sight was the presence of a number of people preparing bibingka and putofor sale to the churchgoers. Popular drinks at that time like taho and tsokolate, or even kape, were sometimes also available.
The most important culmination of the celebration was, naturally, the Christmas day where all the members of the family were expected to be around. This very important gathering was always done in the house wherethe family members sang Christmas songs together. Then, everybody would partake of the noche buena where the centerpiece of a myriad of mouth-watering home-prepared delicacies was the hamonada. The popular Christmas dishes in the past, other than the ham, consisted of pancit or bihon guisado, adobo nga baboy,afritada, menudo, karne frita, inasal nga manok, lukon, alimango, and an assortment of sweets.
Of course, the Christmas season was never a celebration without the usual gift-giving and gift-exchanging. In the past, children and young people made it a habit to go to the houses of their maninoy/maninay on December 24-25 to get their Christmas gifts. The godparent was traditionally expected to give either cash or kind to his/her ihado/ihada. Within the family, the parents had gifts ready for their children and the children, especially if they were already employed, gave gifts to their parents in return.
Certainly, the celebration throughout the month of December was never complete without the usual explosion of firecrackers that had its grand finale on the midnight of December 31st. The noise barragewould then culminate in the so-called media noche where family members again partake of a variety of delicious dishes. Not to be forgotten is the perrenial display of an assortment of fruits on a tray to greet the new year for good luck purposes.