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Posts Tagged ‘Christmas lantern’

You can really feel Christmas in the air now. The temperature is quite cold even in noontime. Many packed the malls these days to go about their annual Christmas shopping. You will also see different kinds of things being sold in the streets. Just try to check and you might find a really good deal with your money with a little haggling.

Just barely 9 days to go before the celebrated birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God in the Christian world. But of course, there is too much to be said for Christmas and I can fill my whole site on articles for Christmas but for now, I will only tackle famous Filipino traditions, and one of the famous is the Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo or midnight mass.

This tradition started in the Spanish colonization era in the Philippines. In Spanish speaking countries, Misa de Gallo is only celebrated at midnight on Christmas Eve, but in the Philippines, this custom starts at dawn on December 16 until December 24 at around 4 to 5 in the morning.

We can also never leave the fact that Simbang Gabi means treating yourself in traditional Filipino delicacies like puto bumbong (a purple colored rice pastry, seasoned with grated coconut and brown sugar) with salabat or ginger tea, bibingka (flour and egg cakes cooked on top and under) and hot cocoa drink being sold by vendors outside the church.

Together with this custom is the traditional “Parol” or Christmas lantern. According to Philippines history, the early farmers took lanterns on their way to the church to celebrate the midnight mass.

The usual shape of these lanterns is star and was inspired by the star on the Nativity of Jesus that guided the three kings or magi to the birthplace.

The usual parols are made of bamboo strips pasted with papel de japon or Japanese paper and illuminated by candle, but now, there are different variations and sometimes the shapes is not anymore like a star and electric Christmas lights illuminates it instead of the usual candle.

Christmas will never be Christmas in the Philippines without these traditions.