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Sunday, December 24, 2023
73% of Filipinos expecting a ‘happy’ Christmas — SWS
Most thankful for good health, family, being alive
Dec 24, 2023 09:49 AM
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from Dec. 8 to 11 revealed that 73 percent of adult Filipinos are expecting this year’s Christmas to be “happy” (masaya), while 6 percent are anticipating it to be “sad” (malungkot).
Meanwhile, 21 percent of Filipinos are expecting this Christmas to be neither happy nor sad.
“The 73 percent expecting a happy Christmas is the same as in 2022 and 23 points above the record-low 50 percent in 2020. It is still six points below the pre-pandemic level of 79 percent in 2019,” SWS said in its report released on Dec. 23.
Expectation of happy Christmas hardly changes across all areas, educational levels
SWS noted that for 2023, those expecting a happy Christmas were highest in the Visayas at 78 percent, followed by Mindanao at 74 percent, Balance Luzon at 70 percent, and Metro Manila at 72 percent.
Compared to 2022, the expectation of a happy Christmas stayed at 78 percent in the Visayas, while it hardly changed from 75 percent in Mindanao, 71 percent in Balance Luzon, and 71 percent in Metro Manila.
Those expecting a happy Christmas also hardly changed across educational levels, SWS said.
Compared to 2022, those expecting a happy Christmas hardly moved from 74 percent to 75 percent among college graduates, from 74 percent to 75 percent among junior high school graduates, from 73 percent to 71 percent among elementary graduates, and from 68 percent to 64 percent among non-elementary graduates.
Filipinos most thankful for good health, family, being alive
Grouping the responses to the open-ended question, “As Christmas and the end of the year approaches, may I know what one or two things are you most thankful for in your life right now?,” the December 2023 survey found 51 percent most thankful for “good health,” 29 percent for “family,” and 16 percent for “being alive.”
The respondents were allowed to give up to two answers.
Following the top three responses were job/career/income (10 percent), food to eat (8 percent), coping with daily hardships (8 percent), prosperity (5 percent), all the blessings (3 percent), education (3 percent), peace and safety (3 percent), and God (2 percent).
Meanwhile, 1 percent of the responses were related to lovelife/spouse, motorcycle/vehicle, surviving an illness or surgery, happy life, house, financial support, having no worries or problems, and material things.
Less than 1 percent answered being able to help others (0.3 percent), while the rest of the other responses consisted of 1 percent.
The remaining 2 percent did not give an answer.
The fourth quarter 2023 SWS survey was fielded through face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.
It has sampling error margins of ±2.8 percent for national percentages, and ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
That Christmas feeling
And the magic of giving
AT A GLANCE
The mystery of Christmas filled our hearts. We understood little, but we sensed a great deal. —Ferrol Sams,Christmas Gift
Christmas isn’t simply a season of merrymaking. It is one big convolution. Even its history is unclear. Yuletide is believed to be rooted in several other significant occasions. Chief among them are the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, and the Nativity of Jesus. The latter is the most common explanation for the Dec. 25 affair, especially since Christianity is one of the world’s predominant religions, with approximately 2.4 billion church members globally.
Needless to say, Christmas goes beyond religious undertakings. Neither is it just an excuse for gift-giving, cookie baking, shopping sprees, as well as brunches, lunches, and dinners with friends and family. The holiday is also a celebration of traditions, cultures, and—not often talked about—our emotions, which, if not celebrated, are at best examined, at worst indulged and consequently magnified, if not exaggerated.
Christmas in the Philippines, referred to in the vernacular as Pasko, from the Spanish word Pascua and the Latin word Pascha, which both translate to “Passover,” is unique in such a way that the holiday is commemorated for four months. It starts from September and lasts a few days past December, otherwise called the “Ber Months.” We are the only Catholic country that observes Christmas for this extended length.
Considering the state of the Philippines, a third-world nation, war-torn and oppressed by various colonizers over the past centuries, and geographically disaster-prone, found at the center of a typhoon belt and along boundaries of major tectonic plates, Christmas serves as a solace to us Filipinos who face extreme hardships almost all of the time.
Christmas serves as a good excuse for family and friends to gather, which in normal instances rarely ever happens because of the archipelagic nature of the Philippines and the busy schedules of everyone. The Christmas break allows us to take a breather from work and catch up with people we hold dear.
As a country of foodies, the Filipino Christmas feast or Noche Buena is the centerpiece of the celebrations. The dining table becomes as colorful as the handmade parols (ornamental lanterns) hanging outside each home, with a spread usually consisting of the lechon, crispy-skinned pit-roasted pig, which spells affluence; the sweet spaghetti meant for kids and not for your Italian friend; the kare-kare, a stew of oxtail, vegetables, and rich peanut sauce; crispy pata, deep fried pork leg to pair with beer; and the Filipino party staple, lumpia or spring rolls, adopted from the Chinese. Desserts are mostly rice-based like the puto bumbong, kakanin, biko, and bibingka, to name a few.
Suffice it to say, Filipinos find great pleasure in the biggest, longest festivity.
Past the cultural and traditional experience, how does Christmas feel? In the words of author and minister Charles Poole, “In gladness and sorrow, Christmas feels just like most other days, only more so.” It is not only our happiness that is heightened but all of our senses and emotions, including nostalgia, sadness, sorrow, frustrations, stress, and profound losses.
Some feel anxious over finalizing end-of-year projects, buying the right presents, planning for holiday meals, attending social commitments, and, in most cases in the Philippines, not having enough resources to celebrate Christmas at all.
What this entails is that we shouldn’t force ourselves or others to be happy at all costs. We also shouldn’t set ourselves up for disappointment by expecting that we will be able to feel something new or different altogether just because the “Christmas Spirit” is in the air. Each of us has distinct situations, experiences, and upbringing, which lead to our complex emotions.
Instead of dwelling on our negative feelings, however, exercise inward looking. Ruminate on your problems and view them in a different light. Take a short break to understand yourself and manage how you feel. The essence of Christmas lies in recognizing that, amid the winter’s deepest darkness and chill, our happiness should not be dictated by nature but by our mindset and actions.
At the risk of sounding preachy, I hope that those blessed with overabundance and joy this season, share what they can without imposing. Those who are troubled, meanwhile, should not be ashamed to ask for help, or at least be open about their issues and release pent-up feelings.
The heart of Yuletide, after all, is giving. Those who have enough attention, courage, and love should impart what they can to others, especially to those in need. If you feel like you have less, just count your blessings and express gratitude for the affection, health, and happiness you have received throughout the year, no matter how little or lacking they might seem. This philosophy does not only apply to Christmas but every waking moment of our lives.
“A holy day has dawned upon us”
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By Fr. Roy Cimagala
Chaplain
Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)
Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
FINALLY, it’s Christmas! A child is born for us! Thus, in the Alleluia verse of the day’s Mass, we are made to say: “A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations and adore the Lord. For today a great light has come upon the earth.”
It’s indeed a day of great, indescribable joy! In the Opening Prayer of the Mass for the day, a beautiful sentiment is expressed: “Lord God, we praise you for creating man, and still more, restoring him in Christ. Your Son shared our weakness: may we share his glory…”
Once again, our Christian faith tells us who we really are. Despite our natural awkwardness in believing this truth of our faith, the truth is that we have been created to be like God, to share in his very life and nature. And no amount of our sins and foolishness can detract from that truth. God will do everything to recover us. All we have to do is to go along with God’s will and ways as far as we can.
We need to process this truth of our faith about ourselves very slowly, because it will obviously astound us to think that we are supposed to be one with Christ. Who, me, one with Christ? We most likely would be tempted to say, tell it to the Marines!
But that’s just the naked truth about us, whether we like it or not. We cannot be any other if we just bother to know why it is so. An expression that is relevant to this matter is ‘alter Christus,’ another Christ. And it’s worthwhile to know what it is all about.
We are supposed to be ‘alter Christus,’ the goal and ideal that is meant for us, though we need also to do our part, free beings as are, to achieve that status. God, our Creator and Father, wants us to be that way, though he does not impose it on us without our consent that should also be shown with deeds and not just with intentions and words.
We are supposed to be ‘alter Christus’ simply because, if we have been created in the image and likeness of God, and Christ is the Son of God who is the perfect image and likeness that God has of himself, then we can only conclude that we have to be like Christ.
In other words, Christ as the Son of God is the pattern of our humanity. If we want to know who we really are, how we ought to be, all we have to do is to look at Christ and try our best, with God’s grace, to identify ourselves with him.
More than that, because of our sin that defaced the original state in which we, in Adam and Eve, were created, Christ is the Son of God who became man to save us. The immediate conclusion we can derive from this truth of our faith is that for us to know how to handle our sinfulness, again all we have to do is to look at Christ and try our best, with God’s grace, to identify ourselves with him.
So, let’s welcome Christ to our life. At his birth on Christmas Day, we should also remind ourselves that Christ actually wants to be born in each of us, so we can truly be “alter Christus” (another Christ), if not, “ipse Christus” (Christ himself).
Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas, everyone!
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