FAST BACKWARD: There’s Mexico in Christmas

Almost everybody concedes that Christmas, the nativity of Jesus in a manger, has been introduced to the country by the Spaniards. But only very know that the Belen’s provenance is Roman and was started by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1223.

The original Belen (Spanish for Bethlehem) had live animals the included live ox, sheep, and donkey. Such tradition did not reach Spain until the 17th century, and a century later was introduced by the missionaries in Mexico from where we got the celebration. (Historically, Lapanday, a barangay in Davao City, was originally named Belen by the Jesuits.)

Overtime, the belen, which only had Jesus, Mary and Joseph as principal characters, expanded to include the Three Kings, representing the three biblical Magis, who, centuries later, were given the names Gaspar (Indian), Melchor (Persian) and Baltazar (Babylonian), after the scholars identified as saints in the Western Christian church calendar.

The Galleon Trade, the world’s oldest intercontinental commerce, has also contributed to the broader image of Christmas in the Philippines via the Flor de la Noche Buena (flower of the Christmas Eve), which the Aztecs of Mexico call as the Cuetlaxochitle, which the early Filipinos christened as pascua, and known around the world as poinsettia, so named after Dr. Joel Poinsettia, the first American envoy to Mexico who was an amateur botanist.

The name poinsettia, according to researchers, did not arrive in the country until the second half of the 19th century, although the Christmas tree tradition started only during the American occupation, which gave us the mistletoe, the bearded Santa Claus, and snow-filled landscape.

Former education secretary Alejandro R. Roces once wrote:

“There are two other items worth noting that its inspiration came from Mexico: the panunuluyan and the parol. The parol was, of course, inspired by the Mexican piñata and the luminaria. The Mexican luminaria is a clay pot with a star-shaped cut-out; when a candle is lit inside the pot, the star glows. This was place outside every home as a sign that the Holy Couple who were in search of an inn were welcome. Of course, that journey is commemorated in what is call the posadas in Mexico; the panunuluyan here.”

On the other hand, Santa Claus has its origin with Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Greek bishop of Myra, Turkey. The priest is credited for having introduced today’s ‘presents in a sock’ custom upon learning a man could not afford to pay the dowry of her three daughters, which meant they would remain single or be forced to work as prostitutes with no chance of landing a job. To save the family from shame, he threw purses with gold coins, under cover of darkness, through the window for three nights.

On the other hand, the centuries-old tradition of gift-giving started with an obscure Christian religious order, which left behind packages on the doorsteps by night. This practice, some scholars say, has been inspired by St. Nicholas, now known as Santa Claus. The Wikipedia says:

“Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from Church history and folklore, notably St Nicholas (known in Dutch as Sinterklaas), merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans and the rest of the English-speaking world as “Santa Claus” (a phonetic derivation of “Sinterklaas”).

“In the English and later British colonies of North America, and later in the United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further. For example, in Washington Irving’s History of New York (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into “Santa Claus” (a name first used in the American press in 1773) but lost his bishop’s apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving’s book was a lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention.”

Christmas in the Philippines, as a matter of accepted tradition, starts in September when carols reverberate in malls and the first signs of cold weather start to permeate certain regions of the country. Considered as the world’s longest Christmas celebration, the festivity, in recent decades, has been transformed into a commercial event, with Santa Claus as the main attraction, the gift-giving as a must in gathering, and the banquet as a sign of abundance.

The central theme of Christmas, known also in the United States as Yuletide, remains the birth of Christ, which Catholics celebrate through the nine-day dawn Masses, the Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster) and the display of simple belens at home. The season is also associated with the sumptuous Noche Buena, Christmas cards, exchanging of gifts (manito and manita), and the Epiphany, or feast of the Three Kings.

Christmas, more significantly, is a time for reunion for most Filipinos. Though some Christian sects, as a matter of religious teaching, do not celebrate the event, they are not barred from joining families and friends as guests in sharing the gifts, food, drinks, and singing that come with the festivity.

To highlight the import of Christmas, the country holds at least two Guinness World Records, namely: the biggest Secret Santa gathering held on Dec. 18, 2011, which drew the participation of 3,500 families, mostly overseas Filipino workers, in the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong; and the largest number of party horns in one setting snatched by Davao City on Dec. 31, 2013 during the Torotot Festival, with the participation of 7,568 individuals.

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