Merry Christmas!

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First published: Friday December 23rd, 2022
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Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas, and if you don't celebrate, Happy New Year!

Let's hope that 2023 doesn't get much worse than 2022 already is. First, I want everyone to enjoy their New Year. 2022 was absolutely horrible. Lots of COVID subvariants, Russia invading Ukraine, gas prices...

This is probably the only time we can have peace. A historical example is the Christmas truce of WW1, where the Central Powers and the Allies on the western front had one day of Christmas celebrations, like singing carols, having a nice meal, and even playing a Christmas soccer game.

Let's look forward to the New Year, and make sure not to write New Year resolutions IF you will not even commit to them.

For some substance, let's talk about Filipino Christmas traditions!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

One Christmas tradition is putting up a lantern called a parol. These are often stars inside of circles and in the center often depict Nativity scenes.

A parol, with a nativity scene in the center.

Lechon.

Another tradition is the noche buena feast. These are open, giant feasts where you can eat your heart out with delicious foods, including but not limited to: ham, lechon (slow roasted pig), and cheese ball (usually Edam cheese).

Filipinos love singing. A Filipino even invented videoke, which is karaoke with a video background over the lyrics. So it's no surprise that Filipinos carol outside of houses quite often. One famous Filipino Christmas song is "Christmas in Our Hearts", by Jose Mari Chan.

Jose Mari Chan.

Simbang gabi.

Simbang gabi, or midnight mass, occurs over nine evenings leading up to Christmas. Often, they occur very late into the night, sometimes until 3 am!

What happens after all of these Christmas celebrations? Boxing Day? Nah! New Year's? That happens during the Christmas season! The Christmas season ends on Epiphany, like most Spanish influenced countries. On New Year's Day, it is absolute chaos. Christmas and New Year's are polar opposites. Fireworks ring out in the streets, parties are held in the streets, and lots of noise is made. With the recent ban on certain fireworks, people have used noisemakers and even fired guns to replicate fireworks.

Yes, these things were banned.

There are many more traditions, but you can do further research into those. The above traditions are once I thought are very important and define Filipino Christmas.