Bigeños Christmas Season

-


It is well known to all of us that the COVID 19 pandemic has a negative impact on our social life. The ban on mass gatherings and festivals has influenced the way we celebrate festivals, including Christmas. Personally, Christmas is my favorite holiday because it's time to spend and give time with your loved ones. Before the pandemic, we celebrated them by hosting programs at school and at work, attending “Misa de Gallo” or “Simbang Gabi”, celebrating Noche buena, and leaving the town. In the light of the pandemic, we need to find other ways to experience the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas is a religious occasion honoring the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. Bigueños and the entirety of Catholic Filipinos have something called "Simbang Gabi" or "Misa de Gallo". People attend mass


as early as 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM every day from December 9 to 24. Aside from being religious, Bigueños love music. They blast local and foreign Christmas songs on their speakers, and of course, caroling. When protocols weren't as strict, you can hear and encounter carolers throughout the day, whether day or night, you will see children, teens, and bands caroling from house to house. The holiday is a chance for families to decorate their homes with bright lights and colors. The city has various contests which involve decorations; this includes parol making, Christmas tree decorating competitions between barangays, street painting, and many more. Filipinos have a Christmas feast at midnight or Christmas eve called "Noche Buena." So if you go to supermarkets, groceries, department stores, or anywhere on the days before Christmas, you will notice a lot of citizens buying ingredients for their meals for Noche Buena.

Christmas brings Bigueños together, the smell of bibingka, the warm feeling, the dark sky at simbang gabi, and most of all, the smiles of the people. It indeed is a splendid experience in the Heritage city of Vigan. As a proud Bigueño, it is an honor to spend Christmas in this wonderful city with my family, as they say in Vigan, Viva! Long live the Bigueños.

 

References:

A Mighty Life: "Christmas Traditions Filipinos in America Miss". Uploaded on December 6, 2017. Retrieved on January 19, 2020. 

https://images.app.goo.gl/GdWuUXSHpxuysftj6

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hybrid Learning amid the Pandemic

-
Image
                  Education provides us knowledge of our society and environment and homes our skills to change them for the better. Education also helps us to develop our own perspective of looking at our lives, prepares us to have our own points of view and form our own opinions on different facets of life. Education today is not the process of gaining information. Only education can train us to interpret different issues and events in our lives.              Since the beginning of 2020, we have been facing a crisis of enormous proportions. The Covid-19 Pandemic has been wreaking havoc across, upsetting our lives and livelihoods. Therefore, all the enrolled students in schools, colleges and universities have been unable to go to their institutions for almost two years due to the restrictions imposed to check the spread of the novel corona virus since the middle of march 2020. We must admit that face-to-face interactions between teachers and students along with vibrant and healthy deb
Read more

Filipino Resiliency is a Myth and always has been

-
Image
      For many of us Filipinos, resiliency, is a familiar word that we have encountered multiple time throughout our lives. It’s not a secret that the Filipino people have always prided themselves on their resilience.           The Philippines ranks among the top three countries in the world for population exposure and vulnerability to hazards. In our situation right now, we are facing the stress of Corona Virus Pandemic. We can lighten the load on the negative side of the resilience scale by reducing sources of stress for families and program staff like helping families, meet basic needs like food, shelter, diapers, health care, child care, guiding adults who are out of work through applying for financial assistance, creating and providing children’s activity kits and encouraging parents, program staffs, and co-workers to practice self-care. And with this resilience enables us as individuals, families, communities as nations and as a country, to cope better with the stress of the C
Read more

A Letter to the President: Acknowledging his Sacrifices

-
Image
Angel Charmae B. Del Pinado, Pagpandayan Vigan City, Ilocos Sur October 10, 2021 President Rodrigo Roa Duterte Malaca ñang Palace   Dear Mr.President,                        Good day! How are you sir? I hope you are healthy and well.                         I didn't vote yet last 2016 but my family and I rooted you. We heard a lot of things about you from certain persons in the Philippines. We thought that you would be different from the past leaders we had who were traditional politicians. Some people in our country were against you but we wanted to give you a chance. Your plans for the country were promising. We  were expecting that the Philippines would be a better place to live in with you as a leader.                            It must be very difficult, especially at your age, to lead a country of more than Seven Thousand Islands and more than a hundred million people. And still, you did your best to make our country will be the best. We believed in you. We still do, and we w
Read more