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MAGSAYSAY, Davao del Sur: In a mountainous village here called Upper
Bala, little Bitoy Amacan, 7, can only sing “Pasko, Pasko, Pasko
na naman muli” together with four children his age, accompanied by
sounds of stones beating each other, said a Philippine News Agency
feature on Monday.
It’s Christmas time here amid cornfields,
vegetable farms and coconut plantations under a black starlit night
and somehow the old Philippine tradition of caroling around the
neighborhood has survived after all these years.
Some of the farm houses here still hang star
lanterns called parol, no longer lighted by candles like they do in
the old days, but by a small bulb since there’s electricity as far
as this village even if it comes only from solar panels.
“Nothing beats the parol when you want to get
that real feeling of Christmas,” says Natividad Amacan, 52, the
mother of Bitoy who also made a Christmas tree out of coconut
midribs covered in colored foil.
These star lanterns are still made of thin
sticks of colored Japanese paper or plastic sheets and symbolize the
biblical guiding star that the Three Kings from the East followed
for many months to find the Child Jesus.
“It’s one way of inviting the spirit of
Christ into our home this Christmas,” Amacan said.
Christmas in the Philippines start nine days
(December 16) before Christmas Day with an early morning mass that
starts at 4 a.m. known as the Misa de Gallo.
During this mass held in all Roman Catholic
churches, the priest recalls the story behind the birth of Christ
from the Bible and relate it either to the daily lives of
churchgoers or to the current problems in the country, depending on
how politicized the priests are.
On the eve of Christmas, many churches, both
Catholic and Protestant, reenact the story of the Nativity showing
how Joseph and Mary, now pregnant with the Child, found themselves
in the little town of Bethlehem, with no room in the inn for them.
This little pageant is called Panunuluyan here
in the Philippines and enlivens the Christmas spirit in the town
where it is actively held every year. Many of the churches even in
little villages like Upper Bala, also hold the Pastore, a little
play by church members depicting the birth of Christ in Bethlehem,
followed later by a Christmas party in the church.
For many of the old folks here in this little
village, it’s the time for their grown-up children, now scattered
all over the country—and even all over the world—to come home
for Christmas.
They do this every Christmas, coming home to
their parents tagging their children along who go to their Lola and
Lolo for the traditional Besa Mano—the touching of the elder’s
hands on the foreheads of the children, before the gifts from the
nearby Christmas tree are distributed around.
But Bitoy’s Lolo Badoy Amacan is holding on to
his gifts until the children sing to him old Christmas traditional
song Silent Night, Holy Night around the Christmas tree. He missed
that song so much from the old days when he used to join carolers in
the village.
With their eyes on the little colored packages
under their coconut midrib “Christmas tree” Bitoy starts belting
out the song, “Silent night, holy night, all is calm...”
Under the dark moonless night in Upper Bala
village where the millions of stars twinkling above seem much
brighter, it seems much easier to feel Christmas in our hearts...
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