Christmas and New Years in Manila

I love the diversity in how everyone celebrates Christmas and New Years!

Christmas begins in September....that is the beginning of the "ber" months and that is when we start hearing Christmas music. Slowly, the decorations are carefully hung throughout the city, the streets, the malls, the stores and the houses. Places you didn't notice before suddenly become alive with Christmas decor.

December 16 is the beginning of the Catholic services, which happen every night until Christmas. At that time, the children and young people begin going door to door and caroling. There are several lively Tagalog Christmas songs that the kids like to sing. It's quite cute. They come to your door and sing, and then expect some sort of treat or money. Some people do not respond to the carolers, but we just can't pass them by. Mari really enjoyed handing out treats to the kids that came. Several of them came back night after night. This goes on nightly with the pinnacle on Christmas day. Then they come to the gate saying "Pasko na," which means it's Christmas. Some of them will also say "Pumasko na," which means it is time to give me a Christmas present. Either way they say it, they are expecting a little gift. We bagged small bags of rice to hand out. I couldn't decide if they were not impressed with the rice, or they were intrigued by the bags that we put the rice in for they were decorated with snow flakes and stars. The fun thing about this is that we got rather familiar with several of the kids who live near by. Some of them sell bread every day, and we see them when we are out exercising. We are now quite familiar with them and on first name basis :)We had a fun opportunity to have a group from one of the churches come to our house to do a special caroling presentation. They are a group of 30 young people who gathered crystal goblets and glass bottles, added water to each in order to form a musical choir. They call themselves the "Glass Choir." We invited all our neighbors and several other friends from nearby, and they came in and performed about six Christmas carols for us. It was a lot of fun and gave us more opportunity to connect with our neighbors.The malls were crowded beyond anything I could have expected and we managed to do our shopping without any pick-pocketing incidents!! Mari did decide she did not care for being in the mall with all the people, so she started kicking her leg off to the side of the stroller and kicking the people that were too close (which was just about everyone), then she started grabbing their shirts. Unfortunately, I totally understood just how she felt....however, I did my best to get her out of the mall as quickly as possible and come back without her. The people really didn't appreciate that Christmas greeting.

Most Filipinos have their big celebration on Christmas Eve. The ladies will cook all day, then go to a church service in the evening, return home, have a special meal at midnight together with all their family, then exchange gifts. It makes for a rather late night. So, I was surprised when the kids came ringing our doorbell at 7:25 on Christmas morning :)

The following week, however brings in the new year, and that is a fabulous celebration!

On December 30th, small little roadside stands appear, lining the major streets, one butting up against the other. They all are selling fire-works, including the big flowers like you watch for 4th of July. Also along those stands are fruit stands selling round fruit. There is a belief that if you give someone 12 pieces of round fruit, they will have good luck throughout the year, one piece for each month. So, as you can imagine, half of the road is blocked with traffic from the fireworks and fruit stands. It is a sight to behold.

Eventually, people start detonating their fireworks, with the anticipation of the grand finale at midnight, ringing in the new year. Imagine 30 million people each buying multiple big display fireworks! We sit on a hill overlooking most of Manila, and as the evening draws closer to midnight, the cacophony of explosions gets louder and louder. I had it described to me as sounding like popcorn popping....four 4-6 hours, non-stop. It is just mind-boggling to know that all over Manila, 30 million people are participating in the same party, celebrating the new-year coming and the old year going. This is our third New-Year Celebration we have shared here in the Philippines and every time I am dumbfounded by the experience. It always goes way beyond what I imagine it, even though I have experienced it three times!That is what I am going to count on this year....That God has things in store for us that will blow our mind, beyond what we imagine or expect, even though we think we can imagine it, or even if we think we have experienced it before!

I pray that your new year will be just like that! I look forward to hearing stories of how God has just blown us away by doing more than we ever imagined!!

Ephesians 3:16-21
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Amen and Amen!!!

Happy New Year!!!