Light-and-sound show at Ayala Triangle
I passed by SM recently. I wasn’t surprised
by what I saw and by what I heard. I saw Christmas decorations. Christmas
carols filled the air.
Foreigners might be surprised. They may even find it
weird. But not we. Christmas starts early in the Philippines. It starts on
September and covers the four –BER months. In fact I was told that someone
called up an FM station at the stroke of midnight (August 31) and requested
that a Christmas carol be played to usher in the Christmas season (September
1).
Christmas is so different in the
Philippines. One can feel it, see it, hear it, touch it and even smell it. It’s
a happy mix of family, friends, relatives, gifts, food (lots of it!), Christmas
parties, Noche Buena, Simbang Gabi, Christmas trees, parol, caroling and
Christmas carols, Christmas lights (go and see the houses at Policarpio St. in
Mandaluyong). It’s like being marinated in the Christmas spirit that by the
time you participate in the Midnight Mass and partake of the Noche Buena you’re
bursting at the seams with joy.
Maybe that’s why for the two years I was
away from the country I felt an ache gnawing at my heart every Christmas.
I remember an advertisement many, many
years ago during the Christmas season. What I can remember is a girl going down
the stairs. She looks at a Christmas decoration on the wall. It read “Merry
–mas”. One part had fallen. The thumb tack must have come loose. She gets a
chair and climbs it and re-attaches the missing part – “Christ-“. She goes down
and looks at her work. Now it is complete – “Merry Christmas”.
I found that video not just a persuasive
piece of advertisement but a powerful catechism lesson. In those few seconds, I
was reminded that Christmas would not be complete without CHRIST!
By all means let us make this Christmas a
holiday of good cheer. But let us not forget that it is first of all a HOLY
DAY. It is first of all about Christ!
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