From the tolling of the church bells in the wee hour of 3:30 in the morning of December 16 which signals the start of the Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo to the "Day of Three Kings" which falls on the first Sunday of January of the following year, it is one long Christmas season in the only pre-dominantly Roman Catholic country in Asia. You might say this long Yuletide season is retailers' heaven but in the Philippines it is much, much more than just endless shopping for gifts on every one's favored Christmas lists. It is a time for much-awaited family gatherings and reunions. Relatives from abroad look forward to coming home to savor the unique Filipino Christmas experience which everyone who has left attest is like no other. (For those who can't be here, I hope am not adding to your homesickness.)
Where else could you find the fervent devotion and celebratory mood of our countrymen in the "Simbang Gabi" wherein you wake up even before the roosters signal the crack of dawn to hear the novena mass at 4:30 in the morning? You then come home to a breakfast of puto, bibingka and other native delicacies. You do this for nine days straight until the morning of the day before Christmas. Onli in da Philippines.
Come Christmas Eve, families hear Mass and then gather for a Noche Buena feast. On Christmas day, children then go around houses with Christmas greetings in exchange for candies and other goodies. Not quite unlike the Western "trick or treating" on Halloween.
Yes, nowhere is the birth of Christ more celebrated than here in Pinoy country.
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