Paskong Pinoy In Washington DC

There's no place like home, especially during Christmas.

True. It’s winter and cold. But Christmas is different here in the US. I miss the warm Christmas back home.
In the Philippines, Christmas is the longest and most celebrated holiday.

I miss the Simbang Gabi which I used to go to with my childhood friends back in the province and with Reiner ever since we got together. We would wake up at the crack of dawn, braving the morning chill to go to church. This Simbang Gabi or pre-dawn Masses starts on December 16 and culminate in the Misa de Gallo on Christmas Eve. It was so much fun walking to church with the other church goers at dawn.

We would stop by street vendors for early breakfast of lugaw (rice porridge with boiled eggs). We would also have warm bibingka (rice cakes made from rice flour topped with carabao cheese and grated coconut) for breakfast. Puto bumbong (purple glutinous rice cakes steamed in bamboo cylinders and sprinkled with grated coconut and brown sugar) would be offered along with invigorating cups of salabat (ginger tea). The festive air would continue until Christmas Eve.

Here in Washington DC, it is celebrated at the Basilica in the afternoons because it is freezing cold to go out at dawn. We never went to a Simbang Gabi, not yet, maybe because we think it’s just not the same.

Christmas is very quiet here in DC. It is deafening. I miss the carolers back home. Our Christmas in my country is not complete without music, and the season is celebrated by Filipinos through caroling. In every neighborhood, a group of kids would form together as amateur carolers and visit houses every night. Rae would gladly give them candies or as reward for singing Christmas songs. They even sang out of tune but that was ok. They were creative in using tin cans, plastic containers, and bamboos as their musical instruments. Now I miss the pleasing noise that these carolers made!

Now, we still share a sumptuous meal by twelve midnight on Christmas Eve (Noche Buena). But this doesn’t come anymore after the Misa de Gallo. As much as possible we still make our traditional hot “lugaw” or arroz caldo and a few more Filipino foods on our dining table. We still make it festive with the lighting of candles and the advent wreath.

Christmas back home was also the day for my family to hold grand reunions of extended family clan members (grandparents, grandchildren, cousins, uncles and aunts) the Dumlao and Gaerlan clans. It will be long before I see them again.

This tradition is worth passing on to my children, and my children's children. The memory of Christmas – the family togetherness, the feasting, the gift-giving, the birth of the Christ Child that gives it all meaning – will linger in our hearts every Christmas time forever.

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Last Saturday night, December 3 2005, the Pinoy Teachers Network from Washington DC and Maryland PG County Chapters had a great time reminiscing the longest Christmas celebration back home in the Philippines. We were at the Paskong Pinoy Concert sponsored by the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC.

Please see our pictures, click here.