At Large
What Christmas is made of
By Rina Jimenez-DavidThese are what Christmases are made of for me these days.
These are what Christmases are made of for me these days.
When the month of December began, I decided to take a break in my daily grind to muse on a meaningful Christmas.
Officialy, the early morning Misa de Gallo today, so called because of the crowing of roosters (gallo), marks the beginning of a nine-day countdown to Christmas but every Filipino, and expatriate, knows the Christmas season here starts much earlier, covering the last four “ber” months of the year.
There’s nothing like being in a non-Christian country during Christmas to realize just how special the season is in the Philippines. In Taiwan, it was mid-December but the holiday fever was nowhere to be felt. True, tinsel and holly festooned the hotel lobby and hallways, and Christmas carols were piped in constantly. At Taipei 101, the humongous skyscraper that sits in Taipei’s business district, there was an obligatory Santa’s Cottage and even a life-size snow globe. But elsewhere, there was hardly any sign of Christmas cheer.
The people’s Christmas gift. The first report from the Social Weather Stations’ survey of Dec. 3-7, 2011, released yesterday in BusinessWorld, puts those satisfied with President Aquino at 71 percent, and those dissatisfied with him at 13 percent, for a very good net satisfaction rating of +58, or two points over his +56 last September.
“THAT IS my favorite carol,” declared our granddaughter Kristin, 8. “Mine too,” said Kathie, 5.
