The Experiences of Christmas

CULTURAL NOTES

Richard Kinnud

It was one fine late afternoon and I was heading home.  The sky is mostly cottony and the western horizon was pinkish due to the glimmers of the setting sun.  My body was getting warm from more than a quarter of an hour trekking up the mountainside and with some load, goods I got from a Christmas program I just attended.  Some sweat springing from my head, a flat terrain padded by finely growing grasses, and a lingering breeze serenading the mountainside were too much a temptation for rest.   I sat but eventually found myself lying on my back and my load beside me.  A while ago in the village Christmas program, I got some bundles of backyard-grown vegetables, some ganta of legumes, some bottle of locally brewed fruit wine and a rooster.  I also brought a wrap from what is left of the boiled sweet potato served during the occasion.  And then my ‘present’ from the ‘exchange-gift’ portion of the party which I suppose was some item bought from the city and wrapped with a paper with pictures of Santa Claus all over it.
    The city was overlooking from where I laid down. There was crowd of houses which looked like pile of Christmas gifts where at plain view.  And as the pinkish horizon started turning greyish, houses started to be invisible, replaced by flickers of light. Soon they were like a cluster of stars that has descended on the dark mountain.  I was trying to spot where were the lights of a giant mall and the lights of the Christmas Villages but I could not find them.  When seen from afar, the lights do not say anything about Christmas.
    When I left the city for this furlough to the mountain vilage, I saw that every corner seems to speak of Christmas.  The streets, the parks, public buildings, business establishments and residences are full of decors - lanterns of different shapes and colors, the star, the Belen, and texts saying Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.  At night, these are complemented by lights.  The malls and major department stores are offering Christmas sale and other Christmas packages and the people seem to be ready to spend.  Institutions, organizations, neighborhood, and fraternities were having their Christmas parties featuring gifts pegged at expensive peso terms and elaborate food preparations although some claim they have toned it down in deference to recent calamities that struck the nation.  The air and radio frequencies are filled with Christmas music. 
    And at nine days before Christmas, the church bells will start to ring every evening or morning inviting lovers, families, friends, and other church goers to the so-called Misa de Gallo (literally meaning rooster’s masses) and at the same time enjoy native delicacies like arozcaldo, pansit, puto, guinataan and tupig sold outside the churches after the mass.  It is safe to assume that the city folk is internalizing the significance of every decoration,symbol, or routine to their lives although it was Christmas slogan of a most patronized giant establishment says "Everything here is like Christmas" which implies a possible vagueness of the festivities.
    There in the village, the new leaves and flowers springing from trees, shrubs, and grasses, and the seedbeds greening at the rice fields served as the Christmas decorations of the thoroughfares.  Only the public school, the churches, and a few houses had Christmas lanterns.  There were parties too held to celebrate Christmas but homegrown vegetables, fruits, and fowls are the very much sought Christmas gifts.  A few though thinks that items bought from the city are a much better kind.  Food at those parties would usually feature rice cakes, boiled potatoes, boiled rice, meat from poultry boiled with vegetables from the garden and often mixed with sun-dried pork, and fried fish from the pond fields.  These approximates the elaborate food preparation of the city folk although many of them wished they had the food from the city.  There is no church bell ringing for the Misa de Gallo and people willing for a sacrifice got to walk to the next village where the central mission station is for them to attend a mass.      The decors, symbols, and routines here seem to be closer to what has been created for humanity although many wish they can do or at least have semblance to the adornments in the city that human creativity can have.
    I tried to look for fireflies around but there was none.  In my childhood, there was abundance of it such that when they fly around a tree at night, that tree would look like a Christmas tree.  I hope it was because of the coldness of the season that none of them are flying for they love the warm weather but many would say it was because of changes in the environment particularly pollution that made them disappear.  I surveyed the mountainside wishing I could see one.  Then I saw some lights flying although they were not fireflies.  The lights were soaring above the city.  The giant malls must have staged some fireworks to attract more customers to profit from in the guise of celebrating the season of Christmas.
    Then the rain fell so hard. I sat up, gathered my loads and tried to run.  But my feet refused to straighten up.  Then I woke up and the furlough at the mountainside was simply a hallucination. 
Suddenly, I yearned for my hometown which is ten hours away by bus from this town center where I am.  The reality was that I was at I slept while attending a Christmas program.  An intermission was just finished and the next part of the program is a Christmas message from one of the institution’s VIPs.  There was a lull between the two parts as it seemed something went wrong with the sound system.  This allowed me to catch up with the conversation of two guys in front of me..
    Guy 1 was telling Guy 2 that he does not actually believe in Christmas.  His church preacher told him that Christmas is a deception.  The 25th nor any date in December is impossibly the date of the birth of Christ.  He went on to cite the bible verse which states that Jesus, Saviour of man, was born at a time when His parents were going for a civil registration as ordained by a ruler.  It snows in December in the place the Bible tells where Jesus was born.  It would have been impossible for the ruler to ordain something that inconveniences his people, Guy 1 asserted.  Guy 2 appreciated the logic but simply asked Guy 1 if he also believes in climate change.
    The speaker on stage, after the sound-system glitch was fixed, started his message with the line, “Jesus is the reason for Christmas.”  Then went on to elaborate on this but I got more interested with the discussions of Guy 1 and Guy 2.  Guy 1, using the statements of the speaker, raised a point that if indeed Jesus the Saviour is at the center of our lives, why should people venerate Him with a deceptive season.  He further raised the issue on Christmas being of pagan origin including the symbols such as the Christmas tree, and the mistletoe.  Guy 1 was even precise on pagan sources of these things.  Guy 2 agreed that indeed believers of Jesus Christ should not participate in pagan practices.  Guy 2 however asserted that it does not mean people should stop celebrating Christmas for people should instead conquer the season for His glory.  Christians of the past did just that, Guy 2 concluded.
    The speaker went on to say the challenge of seeing Jesus amidst the vagueness of things, and amongst the work of our human hands whether it be coming closer to creation or daring human creativity.  And if the ‘seeing of Jesus’ is experienced, then that is the truth about Christmas. 
    Christmas therefore is not because one religion or some sects support it even if others do not.  It is a human experience, part of living, loving, and even dying.  And as there are various human experiences, there are certainly then many ways of celebrating Christmas.