Marathon Christmas in the Philippines

“Christmas in the Philippines starts in October,” I was enthusiastically informed while making my initial travel arrangements over e-mail. When my departure was subsequently postponed to November, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed at missing out on this curious October holiday, seemingly unique to the Philippines. “After all, I’m going there to work, not just for some party” I consoled myself in a ridiculous bout of righteousness. Fortunately, I could not have been more mistaken.

In hindsight, I can only laugh at my foolish underestimation of the Filipino appetite for Christmas. If you were to liken our celebration to a gluttonous sprint, the starting pistol sounding on the eve of the 24th, we take off in a sudden burst of speed, only to collapse at the finish line on New Year’s Day, hung-over and exhausted. Christmas in the Philippines, however, seems to fall nothing short of a marathon.  As far as I can tell, the warm-up starts in September, the pace starts to pick up in October, reaching full speed in November, peaking in December, with a well-deserved cooling down in January.

But now that I’ve grown accustomed to this prolonged holiday bliss, I’m anxiously curious to find out what will remain when the Christmas season is eventually over and done with. How will the malls fill up the empty spaces, previously occupied by outrageous winter wonderlands and disturbingly creepy snowmen? Will they need to put up extra streetlights only to compensate for the inevitable darkness after the millions of colorful bulbs - now arranged as gigantic flowers, lobsters, or other equally random representatives from the animal kingdom - have been switched off? And will mass still conveniently be held inside the mall to not unnecessarily hold up Christmas shopping, or will people now have to actually leave the premises?

Although these are all important questions, the most pressing matter on my mind is what music will be played to fill the post-Jingle Bells silence. As much as I appreciate Mariah Carey’s Christmas album (I promise you there is not a hint of sarcasm in that sentence), I will not complain if they decide to change their tunes. Also, will there still be karaoke at every single occasion? Although my microphone-induced shame is diminishing by the day, I’m a little scared that that particular tradition may turn out to be a year-round phenomenon.

It may sound as if I’m poking fun, – it’s just too easy – but in all seriousness I have never felt more like a cold, Northern European. People here have been so generous to me, that I don’t know how to even begin to repay them in their kindness. Everybody’s doors were open to me, while I can only hope that I would have done the same in return back home. Even the owners of the unit I’m renting, who I have never met and whose existence had honestly never crossed my mind, left a package of Marks and Spencer cookies for me with the security guard. So to sum up, if you ever come across the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, you can just send him to the Philippines for a quick refresher course. I can guarantee his heart will grow three sizes well before Christmas morning. 

Popular posts from this blog

Guilty pleasures

Image
In the urban landscape that materializes below my fifteenth floor window each morning, the first thing to emerge is always the familiar yellow glow of the McDonalds on Katipunan Avenue. Although I would never freely admit it, in addition to being slightly repulsed by this universal symbol of fast food, I find its presence somewhat comforting. Here in Manila, where I don’t speak the language, where I need help with the simplest of tasks, where I’m quite foreign in every way imaginable, it is a relief that the McChicken at least tastes nearly the same. With a polite hello ma’am from the security guard, I step outside my building into the un-airconditioned outdoors. Now that I’ve been walking up and down these streets for the past few weeks, my skin no longer tingles with the uncomfortable sensation that people are staring at me.  There’s no doubt I still look rather different from my fellow pedestrians, but for the moment I’ve become just another person getting on with their...
Read more

Everyone Wants to Help

Image
Walking through Manila you wouldn't guess that elsewhere supertyphoon Haiyan has caused chaos and destruction. Until you open a newspaper. Every inch is dedicated to the typhoon and its aftermath. Everything that seemed important before has now been pushed aside. All the news is about aid. Day after day, I am touched by the stories. In particular, I'm impressed with how people are helping each other. In the office of our partner organization, the Peace and Equity Foundation, are piles of stuff that people have donated. There are hundreds of bags of water, food, rice and soap on the patio. Unfortunately, some water bottles broke and some food got soaked. To prevent the rice and the soap from mixing, we took all the stuff out of the bags and sorted everything. Quite a job, but how could we complain? With sweat running down my back I took a little note from one of the bags. A typed letter to wish the receiver courage in these difficult times and a small prayer for their fam...
Read more