With the ber months well underway, malls have been playing carols since September, lanterns line the streets and Filipinos are on track to celebrate the longest Christmas on earth for another year
Christmas Began In September, As Is Proper
MANILA. It is mid-October, and the Philippines is now roughly seven weeks into its Christmas season, a celebration that traditionally begins on September 1 with the arrival of the so-called ber months and, by unofficial national custom, the reappearance of singer Jose Mari Chan’s Christmas classics on every radio, mall speaker and social media feed in the archipelago. As Gulf News has reported, the Philippines’ Christmas season starts in September with Jose Mari Chan’s music, making it what many believe is the longest Christmas season in the world.
For visitors from abroad, the sight of parol lanterns, Christmas trees and carolling shoppers in the tropical heat of early autumn can be disorienting. For Filipinos, it is simply correct. Christmas is too important to fit into December.
The Meme Calendar
Every year, as August ends, Filipino social media fills with memes featuring Jose Mari Chan, sometimes depicted thawing from a block of ice, emerging from hibernation or appearing at the stroke of midnight on September 1 like a festive superhero. The memes have become so reliable that meteorologists, according to one popular joke, now use them as a seasonal indicator, alongside typhoon tracks and the price of ham.
A university student in Manila explained the phenomenon to a puzzled exchange student from Germany. In your country, she said, you know winter is coming because it gets cold. In our country, we know Christmas is coming because the memes come. The weather does not change. Only the music.
The Mall Economy
Philippine shopping malls, which serve as air-conditioned town squares in a hot country, embrace the season early and enthusiastically. Decorations go up, carols play on repeat and sales begin, often months before December. Retail workers report that by October they have heard the same songs so many times that they can recite every lyric, harmony and key change in their sleep, which several say they now do.
A mall employee in Pasay said she had made peace with it. By the third week of September, I am happy, she said. By October, I am numb. By November, I am at one with the music. By December, I am the music. Then January comes and I miss it. It is a cycle. Like life.
The Parol Industry
The parol, the star-shaped Christmas lantern that symbolizes the Filipino Christmas, is one of the country’s most beloved decorations. Makers in Pampanga, particularly the city of San Fernando, are famous for giant, elaborate lanterns that flash in complex patterns. The ber months are their busiest season, and orders begin pouring in as soon as September arrives. A lantern maker said he loved the long season. In other countries, Christmas is one month, he said. Here it is four. That is four times more lanterns. Four times more joy. Four times more electricity bill. But joy first.
The Overseas Connection
The extended season also reflects the importance of family in Filipino culture, and of the millions of overseas Filipino workers who send money home and, when possible, come home for the holidays. For families separated by work abroad, Christmas is a long-awaited reunion, and planning for it begins early. Balikbayan boxes, packed with gifts, clothes and canned goods, are often filled and shipped months in advance so they arrive in time.
A nurse working in the Middle East, home on leave, said the long season helped. When you are far away, she said, you start thinking about Christmas in September anyway. You count the days. You save money. You pack the box. By the time you come home, it feels like you have been celebrating for months. Because you have.
The Cost Of Celebration
The long season is not without challenges. Families face pressure to buy gifts, prepare feasts and attend endless parties, from office celebrations to school programs to reunions with relatives they see once a year. Noche Buena, the Christmas Eve feast, involves ham, queso de bola, spaghetti with sweet sauce and enough food to feed several barangays. Economists note that household spending rises significantly during the season, along with remittances from abroad.
Then there is Simbang Gabi, the series of nine dawn or evening Masses leading up to Christmas, a cherished tradition for many Catholic Filipinos. Completing all nine is said, according to popular belief, to grant a wish. Churches overflow, and vendors outside sell puto bumbong and bibingka, purple sticky rice and rice cakes that many believe are the real reason attendance remains so high.
The Traffic Factor
The Christmas rush also has a well-known effect on traffic. As shopping, parties and travel increase, Metro Manila roads, already among the most congested in Asia, become even more crowded. Residents have a name for it: Christmas traffic, a phenomenon that, like the season itself, seems to start earlier every year. Some commuters now refer to the entire period from September to January as the season of patience.
The Last Word
Asked whether the Philippines’ extended Christmas season might ever be shortened, a grandmother in Cavite, stringing lights around her gate in the October heat, looked genuinely offended. Shorter? she said. Why would we shorten joy? The world has enough short things. Short tempers. Short holidays. Short patience. We have long Christmas. It is the best thing we have. Then she switched on the lights, turned up the radio and, inevitably, the first notes of a very familiar song began to play.