American in Davao: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Thursday, December 4, 2008

It is Christmas Time again in Davao

American Thanksgiving is over, Black Friday shopping crazies in the States are cleaning their wounds and in a lot of the US the temperatures are cooling and winter clothes are being unpacked.

But here in the Philippines none of these changes happens. So how do you know the season is arriving? Well a while back I mentioned “Ber Season”. That is the first sign of the coming of the Christmas Season. Ber equals months ending in ber.

Well now you see and hear it everywhere. Outdoor lighted trees, Christmas music playing in the malls and in many homes and radio stations. Then there are the door to door carolers.

Here in the Philippines as it gets close to Christmas you see more and more children, teens and some adults going door to door, or I should say gate to gate singing Christmas Carols. Some songs in their dialect and some in English. They usually end with “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. At this point, if you have not gone outside, they knock on the gate, sing louder, or make some noise until you come out and give them a few pesos.

Some of these people are local residents, some are from squatter areas but there are others that is another sign of the coming of Christmas.

As Christmas gets closer, many Lumad, or native tribal groups come to the cities to beg. It is as traditional and Santa and lights on the trees.

They will start arriving about the beginning of December and stay until it is close to New Years. They can be found in neighborhoods singing, outside the malls and markets and any place there is a large concentration of people.

They will have can drums, some types of homemade string instruments and hands out. Some will just walk over and tap you and then hold hands out and motion to their mouths showing they are hungry. There are also some beggars at traffic lights to go from car to car stopped at a red light and tap on windows.

Some you see only a few times some come back every evening and some come back a few times a day. Some sing good, and some you feel like paying them fast and ask them then to go.
This is my 3rd Christmas in Davao and maybe I will get used to it, but I am not sure. I am charitable as you have read from my trips to Field of Dreams and the trip to Panabo but I prefer to decide where to donate and not be asked all the time.

Well, all I can do not is sing “We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, , we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”
Now you all owe me a few pesos in true Filipino style.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Ber Season

When I was a child, the stores did not decorate or promote Christmas until after Thanksgiving (3rd Thursday of November for non Americans).

As time progressed and merchants wanted to extend the shopping season, the stores kept making it earlier. It was after Halloween when they started displaying Christmas decorations.

Now you will see Christmas displays next to the costumes and pumpkins for Holloween.

Even houses start putting up their lights and items earlier too, even though there are still a lot of traditional people who wait for Thanksgiving to climb up the ladders after checking every string of lights to make sure no bulb is out.

Here in the Philippines they start very early. Hence the “Ber Season” The Ber stands for the months ending in ber. So as of September the decorations start up and Christmas Holiday music is being heard.

Here at our house it was a little late. Elena did not put up our tree and decorations until the second week of September.

To follow with the Pinay mentality, HAPPY BER SEASON TO YOU ALL!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas 2007

What difference a year makes. Last year I came to Davao to spend Christmas and New Years with Elena and her family.

At that time Elena’s mom was still alive even though she was bedridden from strokes and Alzheimer’s.

When I arrived there was already a lot of family here and by Christmas day the house was full with 23 people. Linda who is Elena’s sister-in-law with 2 of her 3 kids Jun Jun and Nadem. Then there was Junior, Elena’s brother with his wife Lettie, 2 of their daughters Joy and Genevieve and their Son Juaren.

On Christmas Eve Elena’s Brother Bhong arrived with his wife Tita and their daughter Edna.
The children of Elena’s Sister Nene were already living here since they go to University of Mindanao for nursing. They are the ones I refer to as “The Girls” in other posts. There is Merliza (21), Mona (20) and Riza (17). They have 2 older brothers, Amar (25) who lives o his own here in Davao and Peter (23) who works as a Seaman.

So on last years Christmas with family and a few close family friends, Janis who is Amar’s girlfriend and Cecil who is Peter’s we had 23 people in a small 2 bedroom house.

This year it was just Elena, me, the 3 girls, Amar and Janis.

I had noticed the Tom Cruise movie “Lions for Lamb” was playing at the malls so I asked if everyone would like to go see in on Christmas day. We went to our favorite mall, Giasano Mall. Once there we notice all the movies are Tagalog movies, so we let the girls go and Elena, Amar and Janic decided to come home. One the way I stopped at a reasturant to get a pizza. Then we watched a DVD movie.

Once the girls got home we all went to Palace Buffet by Victoria Mall. It is an inexpensive restaurant but had nice choices and good tasting foods. After dinner we came home to open presents. They were all for me since I gave everyone money for Christmas a few days early so they could go shopping at the malls big Midnight Sale.

So, without family coming out of the woodwork like last year, we still had a nice Christmas with family.

American in Davao