We may be in our default “Filipino time” zone during meetups and classes, but we won’t be in one throughout the Christmas season
Christmas in the Philippines is a four-month-long holiday.
As soon as September hits, gloomy and gray streets are covered with colorful lanterns, bright ornaments, and lights. Malls transform overnight into a winter wonderland, putting on a Jose Mari Chan Christmas medley on loop. Even the Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey acknowledges the tremendous Christmas spirit from her Filipino Lambs. We really do celebrate this holiday on full blast as if it’s our birthday. This poses the question, why do Filipinos celebrate Christmas as early as September?
Having a vast majority of Catholics in the country, Christmas is intertwined with religion. However, we cannot draw conclusions from that alone. Based on the liturgical calendar, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas mark the start of Advent, aka the preparation for the Nativity of Jesus Christ. And that doesn’t start until late November.
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So what is the exact reason behind this long-standing tradition?
The Christmas rush
The most straightforward reason for the country’s long and early Yuletide season lies in our psychological framework to prepare and count the days to celebrate big occasions.
According to sociologist Bro. Clifford Sorita, the 100-day Christmas countdown, which starts every 16th of September, allows us to calm down our Christmas anxieties. The holiday season unveils our inner perfectionist self, putting up seamlessly high expectations on how the very big day should turn out. By commencing the Christmas season during the Ber-months, Filipinos become proactive in their holiday planning.
“By knowing exactly how much time we have remaining to complete a task, instead of stressing about it, we will be able to better allocate our time. In fact, a 100-day countdown also acts as a secondary motivator and reinforces us Filipinos to complete our Christmas tasks before the big day,” Sorita writes in an article.
My mom would start easy on the decorations with Santa Claus statues. She also takes advantage of early Christmas sales. We would buy our pamorma every November so that the clothes are visually up-to-date while we avoid running out of sizes. My mom is always one step ahead, always buying buy-one-take-one spaghetti packages and gigantic cans of fruit cocktails to beat out fellow like-minded mothers.
Rather than turning Christmastime into a nightmare of out-of-stock items and congested lines in stores due to the holiday rush, we try to manage our time effectively. And this does the trick to alleviate our Christmas worries.
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So is Christmas in September more of a marketing gimmick? Most likely but we cannot entirely tell. Manufacturers and sellers may have a huge influence on the holiday rush. With consumers hoarding gifts and toys, it is natural for them to take advantage of the season and drive up the demand for Christmas items.
Theology professor Fides del Castillo and Reverend Father Antonio Noel Carbayas claim that Christmas becomes more festive and exaggerated because of commercialism. The native Filipino tradition became extensively infused with Western and other influences, turning it into a holiday of noise and consumerism. It is normalized to splurge on Christmas-related items, reckless gift-giving, and excessive eating and drinking, which is seemingly different from the traditional silent and simple Christmas celebrations.
Nonetheless, this captures how this yearly tradition has become Filipinized, projecting resilience, pakikisama, and hiya embedded in our blood.
But bear in mind that heavy consumerism and prolonged preparation don’t just come about this season.
Festivities worth coming together for
Sorita also added that the 100-day countdown provides more time to do the essential stuff before Christmas. With all of the preparations going on—from putting up the tree to buying gifts that will go under it—we might neglect the so-called essentials of the season: our faith, family, and friends.
“Our long Christmas Season allows the faith and family-centric Filipino society more time to reunite and be together.”
As a daughter of an OFW, the holidays can be a tough time for us whenever we are incomplete. Nonetheless, my father would always make up for his absence with aguinaldos and the Noche Buena on our table. Being far from other relatives is no help either. So my sister and I would sometimes visit our grandparents to check in on them every now and then.
Being with our loved ones who make every year tolerable is the best way to enjoy the holidays, whether it’s singing quintessential Christmas carols, going to Simbang Gabi, giving presents, and enjoying mouth-watering meals for Noche Buena. Let’s also not forget our highly anticipated ang paos from our ninongs and ninangs on the list.
The Christmas season serves as our delayed gratification at the end of the year. And starting the holiday earlier than any other country makes up for the lost times of reconnection and healing, prompting us to strive for the better until we are in full circle for the holidays again.