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It’s Christmas once again.
The radio plays Christmas songs from the start of September.
Security guards and water boys start giving out tip envelopes.
Kris Kringle here and there while salary bonuses flood in.
It’s like they’re telling you
‘Hey! It’s Christmas! Time for you to buy gifts!
Once December 16 comes, the Filipino Christmas officially kicks in.
This is the first day of the Misa de Gallo or Dawn Mass.
Your goal is to hear mass for 9 straight days until Christmas Eve;
If you make it, congratulations, the Lord will be happy
and your wishes may come true Yes, even your love life.
That's why Misa de Gallo is popular with dating couples.
It is also popular with people who love to dress up.
If you don’t have any plans of flirting then you can just eat.
When you go out of the Church a variety of rice cakes are available
such as bibingka, *** bumbong, kutsinta,
and if you happen to live in a posh subdivision, churros.
Pair them with drinks like ginger tea, Barako coffee, or hot chocolate,
which is perfect with your posh churros.
Everyone looks forward to Christmas Eve.
People prepare extravagant meals on this night.
There’s roasted pig, crunchy pork knuckles, spaghetti, barbecue, ball cheese,
stuffed chicken, ham, fruit salad, and other hypertension-inducing food.
Pair them with beer, brandy, rhum, ***, gin, sugar cane wine,
and other drinks that can melt your liver.
On this night, a lot of people are happy
and thankful because of the gifts they received.
There are also people who are sad because they did not get an iPhone.
Christmas day is a national holiday because
the government knows a lot of people have hangovers.
This day is special to kids.
They wear nice clothes and visit
their godparents to ask for Christmas presents.
Their godparents also dress-up because
they're leaving their house to hide from their godchildren.
Even if Christmas day has already passed, the gatherings continue for Pinoys.
New Year is Christmas part 2.
What was prepared during Christmas will also be prepared on New Year
(except for chicken, they say it’s bad luck).
We Pinoys have a lot of gimmicks for New Year.
We collect round fruits.
We wear polka dotted clothes, and we jump really high to get tall.
We compete with loud firecrackers, although if you don’t do firecrackers
then you can just bring out that videoke machine, which is more irritating.
You’d think after all that, everything will go back to normal.
But wait, sorry, we’ll still celebrate the feast of the Three Kings.
Sorry, there’s still Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year,
and the People Power Holiday.
After which, people may start thinking about taking down their lights.
We may be one of the most extravagant Christmas celebrators in the whole world.
Imagine, Christmas is in the minds of Pinoys, for almost half a year.
If you were a foreigner you’d probably wonder
what’s in the heads of these Pinoys.
But then a question comes to mind, who wouldn’t want to live in a place…
where almost everyday is Christmas?
Merry Christmas from Idea Orchard Media.