'Naimbag a Pascua' (A Good Christmas) in boyhood country

The municipal hall of San Narciso, Zambales a-glitter with Christmas lights this year (2017).

    

More than a half a century ago, Pascua (Christmas) to us kids in the old hometown seemed to take too long in coming. When we learned to reckon its approach with the onset of the 'ber'-months, we had already lost the pure, innocent joy of waiting.

We can’t remember exactly what our great expectations were while the nights were turning colder, and we would need to wear a pranela (sweater) when we go caroling or simply prowling around with the neighborhood kids. 

We were told to be good so that Santa would bring us gifts come Christmas.  We have no recollection if Santa Claus ever came at all through the windows or the galvanized iron roof of our house of buho walls and bamboo stairs.

By November, our Inang (mother) would be having more sewing jobs to finish.  Her customers, friends and relatives, would be dropping by to have their dresses sewn for the Misa Aguinaldo (midnight mass) on Christmas Eve.  She would stay till late at night to fulfill her commitments, sparing enough time for her and my five sisters’ own clothes as these would be done last.

Memory tells us that we always wore a white polo shirt on Christmas.  Inang took care, we now think, to shield us from the usual taunts, no matter how friendly these were, that loud colors do not seemingly match our earth-brown skin tone.

In those days when we went to school in wooden clogs, and later in rubber sandals, Christmas was the only occasion when we had to wear shoes despite our heavy protestations.  Many a time did we suffer blisters at the back of our feet.  Probably, it’s because parents did not do much personal shopping then.  Unless they did, the bilin (request) system was deemed most convenient whenever a close friend or relative was bound for Manila or Olongapo.  They would trace our feet on a piece of paper and cut this out.  The shoes might fit the pattern correctly, but it did not assure the comfort of poor little kids who should look their angelic best on Christmas day.

Far from our childhood Christmas trees. These are competing 12-ft trees in our town's contest.

In our six Christmases at the San Jose-Patrocinio Elementary School, our Christmas tree, just like in most of the pupils’ homes, was the lowly kuribetbet shrub shorn of all its leaves.   Bands of green crepe paper about two inches wide were cut and then folded along its length.  Narrow strips were cut perpendicular to and along the fold, taking care to go just about halfway, and when done, the bands were spread open and refolded the other side to yield a leafy effect.  These were then wound around the stem and branches of the bare kuribetbet producing an evergreen tree on which to hang colored, usually red, paper balls and bells.  

Industrial arts projects in December invariably would be a parol (lantern), usually the simple bamboo star.  We would cover our projects with colored Japanese paper or cellophane and attached the rayos (rays) made of the same paper at two adjacent points of the star.  Sometimes, we would put a rim attached to all five points of the star.  Some would put a belen of cardboard at the middle, or some other decorative paper cut-outs all over.  When schools closed for the Christmas vacation, we would bring home our lanterns to be hung at our windows.

At home, we always had these breakable decorative balls to hang.  During those years, when the dollar exchange rate was taymes tu  (times two) yet, Inang would ask aunts married to US Navymen to buy these things for us in the navy commissary in Subic.  They had buying privileges even when their husbands were away at sea.  At the end of each season, Inang would have less decors to keep for the next year since the Christmas tree toppled over several times, or because we loved to look at the warped reflections of our faces on the balls’ surface, and we broke several of them.

In some houses, swaths of white cotton would be attached to the tree branches probably inspired by pictures of trees laden with snow in Christmas cards, which were all imported at that time.

We also made chains using crepe paper of various colors to wind around the tree. Tiny blinking color lights around the Christmas tree or hanging from the eaves of roofs were not yet in our imagination.  Electricity came around only at six o’clock in the evening, when the Ramos Electric, the power company of richer relatives, turned on their diesel generator to light up San Narciso.

We always asked Inang why we couldn’t have an aru-o (local pine) branch for a tree, just like what we saw in other houses.   We soon found out that this would not be evergreen at all. The needles would turn brown even long before the start of the Misa de Gallo or dawn masses (‘simbang gabi’ or night mass to the Tagalogs; we don’t know why), and would be scattered underneath before Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar ever reach barrio Alusi-is.  Christmas would not end until January 6 when the Three Kings lead the parade from Alusi-is.

In later years, the bare kuribetbet would be painted all white, probably as a matter of fashion rather than as tangible proof of one’s ‘dreaming of a white Christmas.’  In high school, we did this as a matter of convenience; it did not take long to finish it.

Our childhood gift ritual was never that exciting.  We can’t recall ever jumping and yelling with glee when we found a gift lying beside us when we woke up in the morning of December 25.   We probably would get only a car model to be pulled with a string.  The girls in the family had dolls but not the walking and talking types, and Barbie was not yet born.

Our generation started schooling with English as the medium of instruction.  Our first Christmas song was “Silent Night.”  Thus the Christmas jingles that came with the early evening air in our childhood days were the strains of ‘ol is cam, ol is brayt’ as we, the neighborhood kids, went house-to-house caroling about the oli impan (holy infant).   We were happy with a five-centavo caroling token from each house.

Stingy house owners though would get a musical rapping from us --

            Bulong ti apatot,                                   Leaves of apatot plant,

            Paskuayo a naimot.                               Gifts to stingy people.

            Umulog ti makarurod                           Come down if your angy,

            Ta narnaran ti dandanog.                     And we’ll beat you with our fists.

-- as we ran away, scared that they would come down and face our dare. 

Friends who can hum the tune and sing some of the lines remember that they heard it first from their grandmothers.  Some words in the lyrics are archaic Ilocano.  This suggests that the carol is older than San Narciso, and might have been brought by the settlers all the way from Paoay.   

The chorus of the indigenous carol is an invitation to celebrate the Lord’s birth and to proclaim his power and glory –

Rambakan tay a pada-pada                        Let us all celebrate

Panakay-yanak to Dios ditoy daga             the birth of God on earth.

Umadani tay met kenkuana                        Let us all go to Him

Idir-i tay tan-ok ken gloriana                     proclaiming his power and glory.

The two narrative stanzas speak of His humility and mercy --

Ay dimtengen a ti Dios Apo                      Ay, the Lord God has come

Simnek kaasi na kadatayo.                       Because of His mercy to all of us.

Ti Mesias manipud ngato                         The Messiah from above

Immay nga'd la makipagbiag                       came down to live with us.

     kadatayo.

Maysa a rukib a paglinungan                   A cave that serves as shed

Ti kinayatna nga makapanganakan,        He preferred to be born in;

Ket kuloong met laeng piman                  And merely a manger

Ti inna pinili a nagid-daan.                     He chose to sleep in.

Before “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” became the de rigeur anthem at the close of Midnight Mass, churchgoers sang the “Rambakan” in cheerful chorus as they troop out of church, greeting each and everyone along the way with “Naimbag a Paskuayo!”

Paskuami, Apo!  On Christmas Day, this is the salutary greeting of children going from house to house seeking gifts.  As a young boy, following Inang’s stern orders to just go to one’s relatives or godparents, I would be back at home in due time to hand out candies to fellow youngsters.  Cousins would stick around for a while hoping that Inang would instead give them a 5-centavo coin or two.  

Lucky are the kids whose godparents are around at Christmastime.  In my time, very rarely did I see my ninongs (godfathers) and ninangs (godmothers), real and surrogate, this last one being the wives of my ninongs.   Two of my ninongs were US Navymen, and when they came home to retire, we were old enough to talk to them in a buddy-buddy way though we still addressed them, with proper respect, 'ninong.'

Agmano (take his or her hand, and place it on your forehead) was the order of the day, whether you were calling on your godparents or older relatives, to show your respect.  Deep in your heart you wish all the time that they would add to your coins in the pocket rather than candies, and worst of all, suman paskua.  

Before refrigerators came to town, much to-do was given for the salapusup, preparing and wrapping glutinous rice into the suman paskua.  This delicacy would be kept in baskets that are hang in the kitchen.  There was no danger of spoilage; in fact, the suman tasted even better after a few days.   There would also be platters of leche flan resting on milk cans half-submerged in a basin of water to keep away the red and black ants.

Food for the Noche Buena would be cooked before the older ones left for the Misa Aguinaldo at midnight.  Unless we were properly motivated to join them to church so that we can watch the ‘walking star’, a parol pulled from the choir loft to the nativity scene in the altar, we would never be able to partake of the midnight repast. 

Sometimes there would be queso de bola, but we now think that these were put on the table to serve as décor. They would remain uncut even onto the New Year when it would serve a superstitious purpose, being red and round.  We preferred the taste of other cheeses like the ones that seemingly melted on the tongue.

Some families might serve ham, which their visiting kin bought from the popular stores in Chinatown or Quiapo in Manila.  But generally, there would always be special dishes of pork or chicken.

Pan americano, or suman, or puto, or the kutsinta ordered from Baket Tirsing would be sufficient to go with the meats and coffee or chocolate.  

Imported castanas, apples, pears, oranges and grapes were luxury food in our boyhood.  An aunt, widow of US Navyman, made sure she bought the stuff from the commissary in Subic and kept the fruits fresh in an icebox, for the family reunion lunch on Christmas Day.  

Again, chicken and pork, cooked in various ways, would be the main fare in the reunions on Christmas Day.  There might be lechon (roasted pig), quite a standard fare, no matter how long and tedious it would take to turn the bamboo pole spit over hot glowing embers.  

Year in, year out, it’s always a fiesta on Christmas Day --  the hustle and bustle around the sumptuous table, the gleeful shrieks of relatives who have not seen each other for years, the shrilly shouts of children having fun. 

Naimbag a Paskuayo! (Merry Christmas!)

Simbang Gabi in the Philippines (it was once prohibited)

Misa de Aguinaldo at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theatre.

When we were young, the early morning masses were held at four o'clock in the morning. The Christmas season then was cold, and we had to wear a thick sweater or jacket before stepping out of the house and walk ten blocks to the church.  

We eagerly waited for the midnight mass of  Christmas eve because of a 'walking star' when the chuurch lights were turned off. We were awed by the lighted star lantern descending from the choir loft to the 'belen' at one side of the altar. 

In our Ilocano country in Zambales, there was no 'Simbang Gabi'. It was Misa de Aguinaldo for the early morning mass, and Misa de Gallo for the midnight service. That Filipino term came into our consciousness when we started to sing Christmas songs in the national language. 

Probably 'Simbang Gabi' became a literarily and politically correct term during the martial law years. In the 'Guidelines on the celebration of Simbang Gabi in the Archdiocese of Manila' issued by Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales and Cardinal Luis Antionio Tagle on 15 November2010 and 25 November 2013, respectively, '[t]he adjustment from dawn to evening [during the martial law years] was in view of the curfew hours imposed during the martial Law regime.Today, this practice continues to be kept and has become popular even if the curfew hour restriction is no longer in force. Many of the faithful who follow the urban rhythm of work find it easier to join in the evening instead of the dawn Masses. This adjusted time of Simbang Gabi allows them to continue receiving spiritual nourishment and appreciation of the Christian meaning of Christmas amidst secularized celebration."

There had also been other changes in recent times. This week, for example, we saw posters announcing that the Simbang Gabi will be held at 6:30 in the evening from 15 to 23 December in our village chapel. These come, we suppose, in the realm of 'anticipated masses' of early Saturday evenings for the regular Sunday masses.

"From the beginning," the Guidelines say, "Simbang Gabi has always been celebrated at an early hour from 4 to 5 o'clock in the morning. It is this Mass alone that is considered Simbang Gabi or Misa de Aguinaldo. Other Masses celebrated during the nine days before Christmas are celebrated as Masses of the Advent Season, and should follow the norms of liturgy of the Advent season. If the Misa de Aguinaldo is celebrated from 8:00 o'clock in the evening onwards, it should be motivated by genuine pastoral care for the spiritual benefit of the faithful."

In addition: "The celebration of Misa de Aguinaldo at other times, e.g. morning, midday, or late afternoon, is not in keeping with the liturgical norms of the Archdiocese of Manila and is to be regarded as an abuse. Therefore, only the dawn, and when pastorally required, the evening Masses are considered Simbang Gabi or Misa de Aguinaldo." 

We'd like to think that the Simbang Gabi scheduled on 15-23 December was cleared with the Archbishopbric of Manila.

Today, the Catholic Church is dealing with time schedules of these traditional Mass celebrations to cope up with the changes in the lifestyles and working environment of the faithful.

Belens with Mary and Joseph in Filipino attires.

History tells us that there were events that caused for the suspension or even prohibition of conducting the Misa de Aguinaldo:

More than a century after the Christianization of the Philippines, Fray Juan Sanchez (1683-89) was writing about the Missas de Aguinaldo being contaminated "with practices that were superstitious, and contrary to the holy rites of the church."  

On 12 October 1680, Fray Philippe Pardo Archbishop-elect of Manila issued a decree prohibiting the Missas de Aguinaldo, "[b]ecause of the excesses and undisciplined manner of their previous celebrations, so many learned and devout ecclesiastics entertained doubts about it."

"Following the example of the Archdioceses of Mexico where the celebration is already prohibited, the Manila Prelate consulted authorities among the Religious and issued the corresponding mandate. The Prelate received news that the celebration of the Holy Masses which are sung during the nine (9) days preceding the birth of Our Lord is already prohibited. The Archdiocese, on its part, must comply with such prohibition.

"He therefore orders that, for the present, the Misas de Aguinaldo must not, in any form, be sung or recited. No musical festivity is to be held in the Churches, no musical instrument is to be played nor any religious song to be sung regardless of its nature. Non-compliance is to be punished.

"The prelate likewise commands that the Royal Decree be posted on the door of the Churches in Manila and that parish priests be sent copies of said decree for their information and compliance." [Anales, f.120; pp 131-132].

The revolution of 1898 upset the church-state relationship that prevailed in the governance of the Philippine islands for more than 300 years. 

Christmas in Manila and the celebration of the Missas de Aguinaldo were affected by the disturbances created by the conflict among the Filipino, Spanish and American armed forces.

Archbishop Bernardo Nozaleda issued Circulars in December 1898 to the parishes of Manila and the suburbs, the chaplains of the schools,and the rectors or priors of the different religious orders not to celebrate the 'Aguinaldo Masses and the one called Gallo' for the reasons and causes that known to all' [he did not state them], and 'the exceptional circumstances and pains that the Church is currently experiencing in this country.' 

In Zambales and other places where there were no Roman Catholic priests for many years after 1898, there could have been no Missas de Aguinaldo or Gallo. Probably, only the Aglipayan parishes celebrated these traditional Chrismas rites until the church of Rome has began filling up again the vacant parishes with secular and regular clergy,

 References:

• Anales Ecclesiasticos de Philipinas, 1574-1682. Philippine Church History, A Summary Translation, Vol.2. Manila: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila and Rev. Fr. Ruperto C. Santos, STL, 1994.

•  Box 1.b.5 Decretos, Oficios, Consultas (1826-1841, 1868-1896). Folder 1 – Decretos (Libro de Gobierno, Ordenes y Oficios) 1862-1896. Archdiocesan Archives of Manila.

• Sanchez, Juan, et al. (1683-89). Felipe Pardo as archbishop. The Pardo Controversy. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 : explorations by early navigators, etc. (Blair, E.H. & Robertson, J. A., Eds., Bourne, E.G., Tr.).   39(1):245-246. Mandaluyong, Rizal: Cachos Hermanos, 1973. 

•  The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila. Guidelines on the Celebration of Simbang Gabi in the Archdiocese of Manila.  http://www.rcam.org/news/1187-guidelines-on-the-celebration-of-simbang-gabi-in-the-archdiocese-of-manila

Pilipinas Christmas 2013

When we left Manila for the old hometown on Monday, 16^th of December, people were on their way to church for the first simbang gabi, which is not really an evening mass but properly the misa de gallo when the roosters crow at dawn. On our way back early evening, we passed by churches celebrating truly simbang gabi probably for those who failed to join the early morning service.  Thus began the traditional nine-day devotional masses to culminate with what used to be the midnight mass of Christmas eve.

History tells us that the dawn masses were set up during the Spanish colonial times for the farmers who began toiling the croplands before sunrise.  When we were young in the province, getting up early for the mass was one great effort; the joy came when we went around town with the church choir serenading parish folks with local carols and Spanish villancicos after the mass.  As kid, our mother enticed us to go with them to the midnight mass so that we can see the “walking star,” actually a big lighted five-pointed star parol rolling down the rope from the choir loft to the belen at one side of the altar with all the church lights turned off.  Our father who was not a churchgoer attended the dawn masses though before boarding the commuter bus to his work at the U.S. naval base in Subic an hour away. 

We learned parol making when we were in primary school using bamboo strips to form the star, covering this with Japanese paper or colored cellophane, and from two star tips, we hang paper “tails”. The last time we fashioned star parols was at the Manila Center on Mission St. in San Francisco, CA for the first Parol Lantern Festival there in December 2003.

Through the years, the parol has morphed from the five-point pattern to various decorative structures associated with Christmas.  Houses, stores, town and city halls, and town and city streets brighten up with lighted parols in the evening. We treasured a smaller version of the San Fernando, Pampanga parol for several seasons until the colored wrapping started to fade. Of course, San Fernando glows with giant lanterns skilfully crafted by barangay artisans to dazzle spectators with a display of rhythmic changing of lighted colorful patterns. 

 

As an alumnus of the University of the Philippines, one knows that Christmas vacation is coming when a big white star parol glows behind the Oblation in the Diliman campus in the evening. The buzz starts for the much-awaited lantern parade held during the last week of classes when the faculty and students of different colleges and members of campus organizations carry lanterns that reflect the year's theme.  This year, it was “Maalab na Serbisyo Publiko ng Mapagkalingang Kampus” dedicated to the victims of typhoon Yolanda.  The lanterns were made of relief goods like T-shirts, slippers, canned goods, etc. all of which were collected for eventual distribution in the calamity areas. The College of Fine Arts contingent do not compete for 'bests' of several categories, they simply provide the climax of the event.  This year their lanterns were reflective of the cultural color of various indigenous peoples of the country.  

A College of Fine Arts lantern: a mythical bird.

One UP Diliman annual tradition we have missed since after graduation is the free annual Handel’s Messiah concert at the university theatre.  A good friend saved us from the no-ticket line last week when she came out of the theatre with a spare seating ticket.  It was labelled “a Christmas benefit concert for the calamity victims” and had the students who were relocated from the Tacloban campus to Diliman as special guests.  

For the first time, choral groups from Diliman, UP Manila and UP Los Baños came together for the Messian concert.  There were 270 voices all in all.  They did a choral rendition of “Kilos, Iskolar”, a hymn composed by Vernie de la Peña and lyrics by poet Reuel Aguila, which calls UP students and alumni to help rehabilitate the nation after the calamities.

We had an incidental Christmas treat at the Archdiocesan Archives in Intramuros before the last weekend.  It was the launching of the annual display of the belen collection of Fr. Genaro Diwa.  The manger scenes on exhibit vary in size and style, and definitely, they are far from the depiction done by St. Francis of Assisi who did the first one with a live ox and ass in Greccio in 1223. 

The Filipino belens are eye-catching in terms of costumes and interpretations.  One incorporates the Three Kings in Moro, Igorot and barong tagalog costumes.  Another has visitors around the manger representing various indigenous groups.  Another belen had us chuckling because there’s a group making lechon beside the manger scene.

The last one reminds that Philippine Christmas is one seasonal food trip for families and clans.  It is not unusual, for example, to see families in some communities coming out of the church during dawn masses to head straight for stalls selling hot bibingka (rice cakes) or puto bumbong for a breakfast of native fare.  Then comes the first feast, which is the noche buena held after the midnight mass of Christmas eve.  The big one is on Christmas Day when families in grand happy reunion gather around a festive lunch with a lechon as centerpiece usually.

One would think that the long Pilipinas Christmas that starts with the first –ber month of the year, September, ends on Christmas Day.  To the religious, it still extends to the feast of the Epiphany, the 12^th day of Christmas, according to the popular song, which for many years was fixed on the 6^th of January.  Until now, three men of one barangay in our town costumed as the Three Kings Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar lead the parade highlighting their fiesta on this day.

Somber Christmas celebration during the Spanish colonial times

From a few documents we've come across at the National Archives and the Archdiocesan Archives of Manila, it appears that there was not much fun on Christmas during the Spanish times.  Santa Claus, Christmas trees and other trimmings arrived with the Americans to become part of Pinoy culture in the first half of the 1900s.  Christmas shopping and Christmas parties were not part of our lifestyle then.  

The mood of the season was somber, the focus on the spiritual starting from the feast of the Immaculada Concepcion, patroness of the country and of the cathedral, on the 8th of December until the feast of the Epiphany on the 6th of January. 

At the Manila Cathedral, they held 40 hours of jubilee for the Immaculate Conception.  The ordinates had specific assignments during the religious services from the 8th to the 10th of December.  In 1859, for example, ordinates Dn Jacinto Zamora and Dn Jose Burgos were assigned to keep watch before the Blessed Sacrament, Zamora on 9th December, 10:00-10:30 AM, and Burgos on the 10th, 6:30-7:00 AM.  The next year, they had the same assignments, Zamora during the early evening of the 8th and Burgos during the early morning shift. 

The religious mood can also be gleaned from the whole-page spread titled "Alegoria de la noche buena" in the 25 December 1875 issue of the El Oriente, an illustrated weekly on the sciences, literature, arts, etcetera.  The upper part depicted the events of Christmas: the trip to Jerusalem, the nativity, the epiphany and escape to Egypt.  The lower portion depicted two men tending to a flock of turkeys, people going to church, and a group gathered around a dining table. Did the noche buenas of yore have turkeys in the menu? 

"Alegoria de la noche buena"

An inside section featured the cultos religiosos (religious services) that informed readers of the daily schedules of these services in the various churches inside the walled city from the 19th (Sunday) to the the 25th (Saturday), Christmas day.

Schedule of religious services, 19-25 December 1875.

 According to the schedule, the daily misa de aguinaldo would continue to be celebrated in the Intramuros and Santo Domingo churches starting at 4:30 and 5:00 o'clock in the morning, respectively.

On the 24th, there would be a vigil of the nativity, and Christians are asked to do fasting and abstinence on that day. 

Christmas day would begin with a sung mass in almost all the churches at midnight in celebration of the ineffable mystery of the birth of Jesus, sung with all solemnity before the matins.

There was a time in our religious history, in the 1680s, when the archbishop prohibited the celebration of the misa de aguinaldo because the masses were contaminated "with practices that were superstitious, and contrary to the holy rites of the church" (Sanchez et al, 1683-89).   

But around a century later, Fray Pedro Murillo Velarde (1749) was already writing about the nine-day early morning masses being sung with great solemnity.  

In 1885, Fray Pedro Rosell (1885) was describing to his superior the religious ceremonies being held "to honor the birth of our Blessing, Jesus."  He wrote of the celebration of the immaculate conception "a week beforehand" followed by "a daily mass of the [Virgin Mary]," which we read as the nine-day dawn misas de aguinaldo.

"On the last day or the vigil of the feast," Rosell continued, "a pleasing, although simple Belen was made at one side of the presbytery in which were placed the images of the Child, Mary, and Joseph. Christmas eve came, and at eleven o'clock the bells were rung loudly, and from half past eleven until twelve, a continual ringing of bells two at a time announced to the people that the mass called Gallo was to be celebrated in memory of that holy hour in which the eternal Son of God the Father, made man in the most pure entrails of the Virgin Mary willed to be born on that poor and abandoned manger threshold [portal de Belen]. Hence when twelve o'clock had struck, the missa-cantata was said, which was followed by the adoration of the holy Child. That was made enjoyable by the singing of some fine Christmas carols. The twenty-fifth dawned bright and joyful."

It's 2013, and Christmas remains bright and joyful with both religious and commercial trimmings.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

References: 

• I.E.14 Libro de Gobierno Ecclesiastical (March 1846-May 1862).  Folder 2. Document 3044 (p. 194-198). Archdiocesan Archives of Manila.

• I.E.14 Libro de Gobierno Ecclesiastical (October 1852 - May 1862), 2⁰.  Folder 1. Doc. 3124 (p. 223).  Archdiocesan Archives of Manila.

•  El Oriente (1875, Dec 25). Alegoria de noche buena and Cultos Religiosos. SDS-23337 El Oriente 1875-76. National Archives of the Philippines.

• Sanchez, Juan, et al. (1683-89). Felipe Pardo as archbishop. The Pardo Controversy. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 : explorations by early navigators, etc. (Blair, E.H. & Robertson, J. A., Eds., Bourne, E.G., Tr.).   39(1):245-246. Mandaluyong, Rizal: Cachos Hermanos, 1973.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/atd7328.0039.001 

• Velarde, P. M. (1749). Jesuit missions in the seventeenth century.  The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 : explorations by early navigators, etc. (Blair, E.H. & Robertson, J. A., Eds., Bourne, E.G., Tr.).   44(1):108-109.  Mandaluyong, Rizal: Cachos Hermanos, 1973.  Retrieved from  http://name.umdl.umich.edu/atd7328.0044.001

• Rosell, P. (1885, Apr 17). Letter from Father Pedro Rosell [S.J.] The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 : explorations by early navigators, etc. (Blair, E.H. & Robertson, J. A., Eds., Bourne, E.G., Tr.).   43(1):225-228.  Mandaluyong, Rizal: Cachos Hermanos, 1973.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/atd7328.0043.001

A misa de aguinaldo with cultural touches

We did not know that the traditional early morning misa de gallo and the misa de aguinaldo (Christmas eve mass) have become Christmas events at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) all these years. 

The cast of Simbang Gabi@d'CCP included the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, and the Our Lady of Sorrows parish.

Until we discovered these only last month when we saw a stage play there during the National Theater Festival.  We thought that the misa de aguinaldo at CCP would certainly be a great cultural departure from the ones we've attended at the open-air services at the military parade grandstand at Camp Aguinaldo, traditionally concluded with a message delivered by the Chief of Staff of the AFP himself.  For almost a decade, we've been spending Christmas at the camp with our brother-in-law, a Philippine Army official, and his family who were in residence there.  He retired early this year; hence no more simbang gabi in the military camp.

The misa at the main Nicanor Abelardo Theater of the CCP was indeed exciting, and it started very early too at 7:30 in the evening.  For several years now, it has been held at 9 or 10 o'clock depending on the preferred schedules of churches throughout the archipelago.  Well, it used to be 12 midnight when we were still in high school.
 

The Madz led the singing of the hymns during the misa de aguinaldo. Mary and Joseph of the Panunuluyan would later appear at the round niche at the backround, which in this picture is still covered by the big silver lighted lantern.

It began promptly with live music from the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.  The full house of adults and children enjoyed listening to their rendition of familiar Christmas carols for half an hour.

The pregnant Mary and husband Joseph, portrayed by Ramon Obusan Folkloric troupers, sang their pleas for a lodging in the reenactment of the popular Christmas story about their search for a lodging place.

The mass goers were treated to something theatrical next.  The Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group performed the Panunuluyan -- with dialogues in both Pilipino and a Visayan dialect -- reenacting the search for an inn by the pregnant Mary and her husband Joseph in Bethlehem town.  The couple sang their request for lodging, and denied them by house owners posted in several places around the theater and onstage.  The couple appeared later with the iconic image of the baby Jesus when the big silver star moved away from the round niche at the stage background as the celebrant read the Gospel.
 

The couple appeared with the baby Jesus image as the celebrant read the Gospel.

The Philippine Madrigal Singers (the Madz!) led in the singing of the hymns during the mass. During the finale, they were joined by other choirs distributed around the theater in the singing of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, accompanied by Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

As the mass ended, Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus image came down to the stage and were joined by the rest of the Obusan troupe as the Magi and shepherds to form the familiar belen tableaux. The adoration of the baby Jesus followed with the Madz singing carols in the background.

The adoration of the baby Jesus image.