hi one magical christmas. how are you> its now 59 days to go.. and im glad u loved to hear bout our traditions
here is some of the traditions i nver fail every year:
Personally I start my countdown by the first day of September (hehe one of my very few traditions)… But the real excitement comes when its 4 weeks before Christmas. In the office we do our Kris kringle, its like exchanging gifts but the gifts we exchange is based on a certain category (like on Monday we are going to exchange something that is RED and HAIRY J )but we do not use expensive gifts, like these things only vary from 10 Phil peso – 50 phil peso (in US I guess this is $0.45-$1.00) and the excitement goes on and on every week. Some would make fun just to add color and more excitement.
And then by the start of Dec 16, we hear our evening mass or locally known as MISA DE GALLO, funny as we celebrated this @ 4:00 AM usually – dawn not evening..ehhhe and we complete this for 9 consecutive “dawns” ending on the dawn of Dec 24th and the biggest mass is celebrated by the eve of Dec 24 usually @ 10:00 PM -- this is the true evening mass then after the mass all family members gather all together to enjoy our NOCHE BUENA or Christmas dinner (mostly composed of spaghetti, Christmas ham, chicken and cake), I still can remember when I was young, our mother and/or father sleeps through until 12 MN and would ask us to wake them up on time for the NOCHE BUENA. Parents being santa claus is not usually common for us but we have our own santa versions. Our ninangs or ninongs, rather known as godmothers or godfathers are the ones giving us presents every year though we know its from them (as this is being written on the tags) we still consider them as our Santa clauses…After the noche Buena we sing carols, or either watch movies or plays with other younger children. By Dec 25 we again hear mass with the entire family and if we have relatives near to us we visit them.
hope u liked da way we celebrate it here and now its ur turn to share ur traditionspresents
How wonderful Leah! Thanks for sharing your culture with us! :D
PumpkinJack81
Bob, Forum Moderator
AllThingsChristmas.com
did you know that Filipinos celebrate Christmas longer than any other country in the world?
when the Ber months settle in, one can usually hear X'mas songs being played in the radios and even some houses can be seen with X'mas trees already set-up...
They also have rice cake being peddled near churches catering to early Sunday churchgoers...
I once worked with a guy who had married a Filipino lady and he told me that when he was over there, they celebrated Christmas from September til at least February. I agree with you, MW; sounds like my kind of people. Too bad, I don't think I'd get away with starting in Sept here in the US, lol.
I experienced first hand how Filipino celebrate Christmas and I love the way they celebrate it.
Thanks for sharing
Ideas for Christmas: http://ideasforchristmas.net
it's the start of the traditional pre-dawn masses here in our country! can't get enough of the urge to wake up as early as 4 in the morning to get a glimpse of the youngsters & old alike braving the morning chill and enjoying a sip of our native ginger drink which goes well with our creamy rice cake topped with salted egg!!!
Oooooh! I'm was there... relly nice....