You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

free counters

Google

Showing posts with label Christmas in The Philippines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas in The Philippines. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

How does the Filipino people celebrate Christmas in the Philippines?

Icon for Philippine Deep Dive
 · 
Following


We celebrate it the Filipino way. Let me explain.

As soon as the “-ber months” start (September), we start putting up our Christmas decorations. At the same time, Christmas songs and tunes start to play on TV and radio channels. The most popular ones are from Jose Mari Chan – the king of Filipino Christmas songs.

One fun online tradition we do every year is posting memes of Jose Mari Chan peeking or saying psst! and hello, to remind everyone that the much anticipated Christmas season is coming and that you will soon hear his songs, including the ever famous Christmas in Our Hearts everywhere – in every mall, street, and household in the Philippines.

Aside from this, Filipinos will attend Simbang Gabi, which is the series of nine masses preceding Christmas. Most of us believe that if we complete the nine days, our wish for Christmas will come true.

Lastly, the ever famous Filipino Christmas Feast. Every Christmas Eve, Filipinos will prepare a festive meal, which includes lumpia, lechon, queso de bola, and fruit salad, to name a few. Then, they will gather along with their friends, families, and neighbors to stay until 12 midnight for Christmas Day. This tradition is called Noche Buena.

The Filipino Christmas is one of the most exciting and memorable events, hence why people from all over the world travel to the country to witness and participate in it.

To know more about Filipino Christmas traditions, read about it here: How Filipinos Celebrate Christmas

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Nothing can ever cancel Christmas in this country


by AA Patawaran, Manila Bulletin

Whatever happened to Father Christmas in England in 1647 would never happen in the Philippines, no matter how dire the circumstances get—poverty, disaster, a bank run, a civil war, or a revolution.

In 1647, right after the English Civil War and the Church of England gave way to a Presbytarian system, the English parliament passed an ordinance declaring festivities over Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun a taboo, outlawing decorations, celebrations both public and private, and even shops closing up in observance of holy days.

As a result, though all of the kingdoms of England, which at the time included Wales and Ireland, were up in arms, Father Christmas who, as the Paris Review described him, was once “rotund from indulgence,” embodying “Christmas as an open-hearted festival of feasts and frolics,” grew “skinny, mournful, and lonely, depressed by the grim fate that had befallen the most magical time of year.”

…hens and chickens were saying noisy farewells amid the rapid clatter of knives and chopping blocks and the sputtering of lard in frying pans. There was a promise of good eating in the succulent smells of stews and sweetmeats that reached out to the streets. —El Filibusterismo, Jose Rizal

Or he might have migrated to the Philippine islands, whose Christianization by their Spanish colonizers in the 1700s was well under way. Noche Buena (Nochebuena back in the day, one word, as it still is, referring to the Christmas Eve dinner, in Spain) is Spanish for “a night of goodness,” but Noche Buena traces its roots to the early mornings, shortly after midnight, when the Filipinos broke their Christmas Eve fast.


Back then, as ordered by the Spanish friars, it was customary—if not mandatory—to go on a fast the whole day on Christmas Eve. In this writer’s humble opinion, it was in honor of the struggles of the Holy Family to look for a suitable place for the Christ Child to be born in. Alas, there was no room at the inn, so Jesus was born in a manger filled with hay, a long, open trough for horses or cattle to eat from in the cold, smelly stables.

Before they could break their fast, the Filipinos under over 300 years of Spanish occupation, would end the day at the Misa de Gallo, and you can imagine how famished they must have been that even the sacramental bread must have tasted to them like manna from heaven or like cake from Marie Antoinette. But then the mass would be over, and the fast was ended, and it was time to eat at last.


Hence, the Noche Buena. And maybe this is why, just outside the church, anywhere across the Philippines, where a Catholic stone church stood, which then—as now—meant every town, the churchgoers, emerging from the midnight mass, or even the early morning masses of Simbang Gabi, and keen on satiating their day-long hunger and their enormous appetites, would expect stalls and kiosks peddling bibingka, puto bumbong, puto with tsokolate, kutsinta, biko, palitaw, and suman.

These rice cakes, although they carry traces of our foreign interactions on the trade routes of our pre-colonial past, whether in terms of techniques or transplanted ingredients, are our very own contribution to the celebration of Christmas steeped in tradition and cultural significance. All the carbs waiting on the churchyards after the night masses of Yuletide in the Philippines would have been enough to keep Father Christmas happy-plump and rosy-cheeked despite the Puritan revolution of the 17th century, not to mention less depressed because, you know, carbs boost the brain’s release of serotonin, the chemical that keeps us calm and satisfied.

But there is more to the Philippine Christmas feast than the stuffed turkey, Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and sage, and roast potatoes Father Christmas was familiar with in the United Kingdom, of which we might have had a taste in the 20 months the British occupied the Philippines from 1762 to 1764.

Ours is a hodgepodge of influences drawn from over three centuries of Spanish rule, the hold the Americans have had—still do?—over us since 1898, when Spain sold us to them for only $120 million, and, long before we were named the Philippines after Spain’s King Philip II, centuries worth of trade and cultural exchanges with the Arabs, the Chinese, the Indians, the Javanese, the Japanese, and more. 

Mementos of our major colonial experiences with the Spanish and the Americans still find their way to our Christmas celebrations. From Spain, the Filipinos have incorporated the likes of jamon de bola, stuffings like relleno, embutido, galantina, and morcon, lechon or cochinillo, lengua, callos, chorizo, paella, and the ubiquitous queso de bola or Dutch Edam cheese, a staple on vessels sailing on world expeditions across uncharted waters, such as the Magellan flotilla and the Spanish galleon. The Americans, in turn, threw in pies, Spam, Vienna sausage, and fruitcake.  The Noche Buena table on every Filipino home is a journey across the world, packed with history and the forging and cutting of ties between nations.

But there are also regional variations within the Philippines. Bibingka, for instance, has many variants, such as bibingkang Mandaue that, unique to Mandaue, Cebu, was traditionally made with tuba to give it a kick. In Cavite, it is called bibingkoy, which comes with a filling of sweetened mongo and served with langka, sago, and coconut cream. In Davao, there is durian bibingka and, in Eastern Samar, what they call salukara is bibingka in the shape of a pancake.

There are many kinds of suman too, such as black rice suman from Baler, Aurora, suman sa lihiya in Laguna, suman moron in Leyte, and suman budbud in Dumaguete. In Pangasinan, it’s called tupig and in Bulacan pinipig and, in Cebu, it is best eaten with ripe mangoes.

The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,641 islands and many regions boasting of their own unique cultures, geophysical traits, and resources. Coupled with the influx of colonial influences as well as the yields of the Filipino diaspora scattered all over the planet, all that find expression not only in Fiipinos’ day-to-day living, but especially in occasions important to us, like Christmas.

Father Christmas should have learned an important lesson in 1647. Although it had been a dismal failure, they did cancel Christmas in the UK and they can attempt to do so again, as they have in other places in the world.

In the Philippines, however, nothing can stop Christmas, not a pandemic like this one that we have been grappling with for two years, not even all the health bulletins warning against obesity and excessive eating.

Nothing at all can ever cancel Christmas in the Philippines.


Monday, September 13, 2021

Why are my Filipino friends keep saying it’s already Christmas, when September just started?

 

Profile photo for Stuart Hopkins
By: Stuart Hopkins
Keen to discuss all things music, aviation, food and drink.

Retired professional pianist. Living in the Philippines with Grace, our daughter who will be turning three in August, and our two-month-old son, Marcus:)


After four years of living in the Philippines, I tend to live like a hermit as much as possible from 1st September until the end of the year.

Ah yes, Christmas in the Philippines.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do love Christmas. Being British, Christmas is a very different thing here. The biggest difference one notices is that there's no snow, ice, and I therefore don't have to spend several months freezing my arse off. My first ever Christmas Day away from the UK was in 1994 and I spent it on a beach in Phuket eating Chicken fried rice, sweating, rather than freezing my derier off. From then on in, I was hooked on hot Christmases.

I digress.

So, here we are, in the throws of what are commonly known as the ‘Ber Months' here in the Philippines. September, October, November and December.

Right now, there are people hanging up their Christmas decorations. There are shopping malls with gigantic Christmas trees on display. Supermarkets are playing Christmas music. Some staff member of a book shop somewhere is dressed as an elf, is standing outside said bookshop - ringing a handheld brass bell in the rhythm of Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the fucking way - while advertising pre-christmas discounts, and yes, you can even buy Christmas hams, cakes and other jolly seasonal products right now.

One thing I will say about Christmas here is that everyone is highly organised when it comes to gift buying, unlike myself. It's generally all done and completed a couple of days before the big day.

And that's great for me, because as one of those guys who decides to go out and do his Christmas gift shopping at about 3pm on Christmas Eve, I find myself in deserted malls and can get it all done in 30 minutes flat!! That, however may change this year due to it being out daughter's first Christmas. She will be precisely four months old on the big day.

I'm considering buying her a radio controlled aeroplane, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue, but I haven't mustered up the courage to tell her mother yet.

Then, of course, the 1st January arrives and we're bombarded with Valentine's Day gifts. Get that done, it's Easter time. Mother's Day, Father's Day. I seriously think we should take all of those things, pick a random date and call that date ‘Buy Everything for Every Special Occasion Day'.

So, that may give you some insight as to why your Filipino friends are telling you it's Christmas, because for Filipinos, Christmas starts on the 1st September.

www.quora.com


Saturday, December 13, 2014

JAN VAN DAM*: Christmas Parols in The Philippines

Christmas Parols in the Philippines
boys watching the colorful display in this shop
 
The southeast Asian island nation has the world’s longest festive season — and pulls no punches in its celebratory zeal for the period, with lavish light displays, masses, and festivals held throughout the country from September until January.

☆ The Philippines has the longest Christmas season in the world — from September to January.
☆ The festive season is marked by traditional masses, spectacular light displays and family gatherings
☆ Some villages organise contents for the best Christmas decorations
☆ Traditional paper and bamboo lanterns known as ‘parols’ light up many Filipino villages and towns.

The parols are as important to Filipinos as the Christmas tree to Western culture — without parols Christmas wouldn’t be complete.

Christmas lanterns known as ‘parols’ light up many Filipino homes or streets. They were first created in the late 1800’s by artisans to help villagers find their way to churches to pray. Old paintings from that time show these lanterns already. The lanterns were used by people to light their paths during the ritual Yuletide dawn masses called ‘Misa de Gallo’ [midnight mass], because electricity was unavailable at the time in many rural areas. They were made of bamboo and paper and had a candle inside. Such lanterns are now more likely to glow with electronic lights, and made with plastic or capiz, but the ethos remains the same — a guiding light in the darkness for worshippers wanting to congregate and pray.

Make your own Christmas Parols in the Philippines.

Try to make your own parol for next year. A nice website with a good way to make a parol can be found on My Parol dot com And another one can be found at the website of the Bayanihan Community Center .

If you like to insert a lightbulb or candle, you need to make provisions before you finish the parol, but I do not need to tell you this. If you do: be carefull, because the paper and the bamboo might catch fire easily… ;-)


lantern parade in San Francisco
lantern parade in San Francisco
 
Summary
 
Article Name
Christmas Parols in the Philippines
Author
Description
The Philippines has the longest Christmas season of all countries in the world: September - January. This is about the famous Christmas Parols in the Philippines, history and how to make them.
 
(c) 2103/2014 Jan van Dam (http://www.expatinthephilippines.com)