It's too quiet here. Come to think of it, it's 4 days before the Big Days. Yes, you saw that s after the word day and that's cause they got both the 25th and the 26th as the Big Days here. By the way, those days don't really necessarily mean anything attached to any religious observation to some here either.
Some just use it to have some sort of a family reunion, eat together, pretend we're okay as a family even though we're not (I guess that's a thing about adults and that's the magic these two days do ~~ bring everyone in peace) or visit some long time no see friends. Sounds sad doesn't it? That's not always the case although, some have this but many groups of people are helping reunite such many during this time of the year.
By quiet, I don't mean mousy quiet .. it's just I guess I was used to how noisy and jolly Christmas is in my country. Of course, I still hear cars come and go even late at night where I live here but even though I don't see those two days as a big a deal as the many does, I have to admit I miss the sound of children singing the carols at night. They only play Christmas songs in the malls or the bus and perhaps some houses do, too (though you'd never hear them play it party music loud here) but where I came from it would haunt you even in a public toilet.
I still remember my first Christmas Caroling galore. I was three, yes, I was three but those memories are vivid. I grew up in the countryside and my grandparents and their whole clan's Catholic so yes, I, too, used to observe every ritual associated in this season when I was young including inflicting deafness among our neighbors.
As soon as the last week of November arrives, my two best friends and I would go around stores collecting bottle caps of soft drinks. We'd hammer each of them flat till you can barely see the coating on any of it. Funny part is one of my best friends belong to a family whose religion doesn't observe the rituals of what most of you call - Christmas Day but she never missed any of this event. I guess that's the best part about being a kid, so free, no restriction, you're given the pardon of not understanding what you're doing so it's all allowed.
We'd then pull a clothes line or two and just prepare getting scolded by any of our parents for doing that, burrow a hole in the middle of those flatten bottle caps, hook one end of the cut clothes line in them, knot it with the other end and make a tambourine out of it.
I remember excitedly waiting for the calendar to turn its page cause that would mean time to use them flattened bottle caps tambourine of ours. The first night of December is the best night of them all, every house we knock on to is still very generous.
By that I meant, getting 25 peso cents per house and imagine us going through a lot of houses from 5 to 7 pm because we will have to get back home before it gets too dark and it's not because you could get kidnapped or raped outside but because we were conditioned about "aswangs" or Philippine monster tales which most of us dreaded back then so we'd really go home sometimes even before 6 pm just to not be eaten by any of those characters in our folks monster tales, to the point that we even ask people in the houses we sang carols for what time it is to make sure we could get home before it gets too dark.
During the first week of December, people would still open their doors and still give us 25 cents and we'd be lucky to get 50 cents or 1 Philippine peso (imagine, these days the peso and $ rate is $1 = 45 to 50 peso so do the math and you know what we were having.) and we'd normally get 5 pesos in a night and we'd divide that to how ever many we are cause sometimes, my two best friends' siblings tag along cause the more the merrier!
The second week would be a drag and I can't blame our neighbors. Imagine getting a dozen of groups of caroling kids how much would that cost you a night? A middle man's bonus would probably not be enough to reward all of those groups. Nevertheless, nothing stops us from meeting night after night to inflict deafness to our neighbors.
Inflict deafness? Why do I keep saying that? It's cause back then I think we were all tone deaf (laughs) and we were kids so we were shameless! We were all in competition - singing the loudest among each other. Can you imagine a chorus of albatross singing the Christmas Carols? I bet you wouldn't even dare - so there.
Some nights, we'd sing a row of ten or more songs and wait till the door opens but the neighbor must have had too much their ears went all close and probably locked up because back then headphones still don't exist but as you can see we've successfully inflicted deafness in our neighborhood for they no longer open their doors at all no matter how many carols we've screamed at them outside their house.
The only night it gets quiet is when the 25th hits the calendar cause by that time, we're all busily waiting and trying to sneak out eating whatever is on the table for "noche buena" that's dinner at midnight (I realized how ignorant we were back then - health wise , cause eating after 8 is very very bad for the blood sugar and there are many studies and health professionals who'd support that! and the siren of the ambulance in Manila were the only witnesses to that).
There were years when even after the 25th we'd still go sing the Christmas Carols and the neighbors get their hearings back but their kindness and patience are all used up by this time, they'd really blatantly shoo us away by then. (laughs)
I did this till I was 12 and that's because I grew up with this kind of conditioning because I can't really say it was our culture but rather we just adopted it from the big uncle Sam. Back then, I didn't need any explanation nor to ask why we had to do all these during those days, back then I was just going with the flow as a kid. I was a kid, oblivious of the whys of the many rituals the world around me observe.
As I have written last year, I don't observe any of those rituals attached to those two days and come to think of it, I'm still alive. The only difference is I'm more relaxed and I don't feel obliged doing any of those things the majority does when this time of the year comes, however, I have to admit I miss the deafening singing of children every night, every single year that I am here. I guess, there are things that even though I no longer believe nor do.. haunt me because they were associated with pastel colored memories of my childhood.
I guess, because tv was not invented during those days yet or perhaps they were but my whole generation didn't have them at home, we've often roamed the streets till before 6 during what the majority calls Christmas time singing carols at the top of our lungs and merrily share ice candy or iced halo-halo ( frozen fruit salad in an ice plastic bag ) on the nook of which ever store we bought them from every after those nights we went around inflicting deafness around our neighborhood.
Here, it's deafening quiet .. in a sense that there's no such a thing, the only noise I hear outside are the barking of dogs, the cars pulling over to park or the sound of the rain dropping on our roof at night. So I wonder ... are you .. like me 40 or older? What was Christmas season like during your childhood days? How did you and your friends spend those days back then? 15% upvote
to anyone who'd share theirs at the comment section.
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