It allows us Filipinos to think and prepare for our loves (like gifts, decorations and what food to prepare) and also the birth of Jesus Christ, that why Philippines has the longest Christmas celebration. Happy New Year Karsten and Stefan🎉🎊😍
As early of August in my region here in the Philippines Christmas celebrations everywhere you can feel. You can hear christmas songs in radio, musical tv and in every center of villages, municipalities, cities and provincial center point.
I love Mr. Kirby Araullo and his channel, and I also learned a lot more of things about the Philippines, and about Philippine or Filipino history, culture, people, and society from him and his channel. I've been his subscriber for more than a year already, and he is very knowledgeable, especially because he also asks other people like his families and elders, cultural experts, local community elders, etc. aside from his own knowledge, studies, and researches. I never knew that there is or might be a syncretism or mixing and blending of indigenous, native, local, and pre-Hispanic or pre-colonial cultures, society, beliefs, traditions, etc. of the Philippine archipelago with Christianity (especially Roman Catholicism) and Christmas when the Spanish people arrived, colonized, conquered, and lived in the archipelago, and Christianized and baptized most of its people into Christianity, to make or possibly make the Philippines observe and celebrate the longest secular Christmas observation, celebration, preparation, and season in the world. I only knew it from him and his video.
as i observed as a filipino, a resident in Manila, Celebrating christmas holidays actually 6 months. From September until February because of Chinese New Year.
What I learned from my parents and elders about why the Simbang Gabi (literally means Evening or Night Mass in Filipino and or Tagalog, because even though the masses are done after midnight and before dawn, the darkness of the sky looks and feels like it's evening or at night) and aka Misa de Gallo (literally means Rooster's Mass in Spanish and in Chavacano, because it's in the early morning or after midnight and before dawn when roosters typically or usually begin to crow, sing, or make their sound to wake up people for the masses) are beginning in December 16 and celebrated all the way up to December 24, is to remind us, to remember or commemorate, and to symbolize the nine months Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ carried the baby Jesus in her womb before she gave birth to Him. The number 9 is also a special and quite a sacred number for Roman Catholic Christians especially when it comes to worship and prayer to God, or to adoration, intercession, veneration, and devotion to patron saints, titles or miraculous apparations of Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ, titles of Jesus Christ, etc. In Spanish and even in Filipino and most other languages of the Philippines, the word for this nine times of prayers is "Novena" (literally means the adjective and ordinal number "ninth" in its feminine form in Spanish), "Novena Mass", or "Novena Prayer", and it means the nine consecutive masses or prayers celebrated, offered, or prayed during the same time or beginning the same time on those nine consecutive days.
The meanings, significances, reasons, or importance of the "parol" or the Philippine Christmas star lantern are (based on what I know and grew up with from my parents, elders, and local community): 1. It signifies light, hope, happiness, joy, festivity, clarity, peace, and gratitude or thanksgiving for the months that passed and for the upcoming year to start or begin after December. 2. It symbolizes and somehow is also, accordingly, the same or similar lanterns that early Filipinos used to guide them to go and attend the religious services and the nine-day early morning (past midnight and before dawn) masses in going to their local churches and chapels, and in guiding them throughout the journey of going to and from, as well as to see clearly where they're walking on as they travel. 3. It signifies the bright star that guided the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men or the Three Magis to the right way and place where the prophesied and promised Messiah/Messenger and Savior is born, and it led them to the manger where Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ and her spouse and earthly father of Jesus Christ, Saint Joseph, with the farm or barn animals in that small animal shelter, together with the local and nearby shepherds of sheep who heard and saw the angels from heaven announcing and singing to them and to the world the birth or incarnation and the coming of the Son of God and the promised and prophesied Messiah/Messenger and Savior, are all in and around. The Three Kings, Wise Men, or Magis each offered the newly-born baby Jesus, or the Emmanuel, three gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh.
That bright star was later found out by scientists and astronomers as the bright light seen on Earth from the alignment of the three gaseous or Jovian planets of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, that happens in a cycle of around every eight hundred years.
There are a lot of possible reasons as to why the Philippines starts or begins to observe, prepare, or celebrate the secular Christmas season on September 1st and why exactly it needs to begin or start on September 1st and not on any other day or date of any other month of the year. We can think of possible economic, marketing, business-related, entrepreneurial, cultural, social, religious, secular, indigenous, local, native, ethnic, tribal, national, regional, provincial, personal, individual, political, or historical reasons and meanings or other whatnot behind, but I don't exactly know if one or any of those is or are the exact and accurate reasons or meanings. Different people and groups will tell a different story, and nobody, I guess, is for sure to know the exact and accurate meaning and reason why, and even when did, in what time, era, period, and whatnot of Philippine history, the Ber Months or September 1st thing or concept first ever happened and first ever recorded or documented in history and written records, journals, newspapers, articles, writings, documents, and the like. We can all guess, I guess, but maybe we can't all arrive to the same answer of the true, exact, and accurate reason or meaning, or even at least arrive to have a national agreement or consensus to answer this question once and for all, and to give us all the peace of mind and inner peace we all wished to have for this great question. Nevertheless, the sense of curiosity and the adventure of inquiry is what we are all up to in the first place as we go deeper and deeper to our own Filipino or Philippine roots. Sending love and support from Zamboanga City, Philippines! Feliz Año Nuevo a todos desde Ciudad de Zamboanga!
Simbang gabi or the dawn mass starts at 4:30am starting on dec 16 up to dec 24. It's a 9 day dawn mass. You have to complete the 9 day mass in order to attain abundant blessings from God
Why the Philippines starts Christmas as early as September? I think this involves so many factors : historical (rebirth /reconcile), cultural (filipinos loved Christmas), religious (Simbang Gabi or midnight masses 9 consecutive days until Christmas Eve and celebrating the coming of Christ ), marketing stunt (usually government officials /employees receives their Christmas bonuses as early as October so businesses take advantage of this situation ) and etc. depending what province/region you are in the country. I hope I give some points /clarification on this.
The Ber Months or September 1st thing or concept in the Philippines as the beginning or start for the celebration and observation, or at least the preparation for Christmas Day, is in fact more of a secular aka non-religious idea and practice. For Roman Catholic Christians in the Philippines, making up more than 80% of the Philippine population, the religious start or beginning of the Christmas season is on the second past midnight of December 24 to December 25 and all the way up to January 6 the next year or at least Sunday before January 6 (if January 6 didn't land on a Sunday) when the Day of the Epiphany aka the Three Kings' Day, Three Wise Men's Day, or Three Magi's Day is observed and religiously celebrated. The religious season of waiting and preparation for this season is starting or beginning on the First Sunday of the season of Advent, which is the next Sunday after the Sunday of the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, The King of the Universe aka Christ The King Sunday. The Advent season is the first month of the liturgical calender or the religious Roman Catholic Christian calender based on the organization of the various readings from the Holy Bible used in the Liturgy of the Word in Roman Catholic Christian Masses everyday. The start or beginning of Advent is on four Sundays before Christmas Day and including the Sunday right before Christmas Day. So, it's like about a month of religious and spiritual preparation for the solemnity, celebration, and hope of the coming of Jesus Christ to Earth. The coming of Jesus Christ as observed and prepared by Roman Catholic Christians all throughout Advent is observed and prepared in two ways. First, is the religious and spiritual remembrance or commemoration of the Biblical and historical first coming of Jesus Christ, aka the birth of the Son of God as the Emmanuel or as the baby or infant Jesus, aka the incarnation into this world or the Earth, into human history, human affairs, space-time, or into the created world/universe/planet/cosmos and among all other creations and creatures, of God the Son or the second person of the Holy Trinity or Triune nature of God in the body, form, and flesh of the baby or infant Emmanuel or Jesus, and taking two natures at the same time of being a fully and whole human being, individual, and person, and of being a fully and whole God Himself in the person of the second person of the Holy Trinity or the Triune nature of God, and all two natures fully united and existing at one and the same time and space and place, and in one and the same newly-born baby or infant. Second, is the religious and spiritual observation and preparation for the believed and prophesied second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the world and all or everything, or the end of times, aka the Armageddon, to come back again to judge the living and the dead and when His Kingdom will have no end, as it is said and mentioned in the Roman Catholic Christian Creed called the Nicene Creed, which is believed, prayed, mentioned, spoken, and uttered in every Roman Catholic Christian Mass, especially every Sunday, except when the Apostles' Creed is the one used, and except when both these two nor any other Roman Catholic Christian Creeds aren't used at all on certain and specific times of the year. The religious and spiritual observation and preparation in and throughout the Advent season for Roman Catholic Christians, and maybe observed, prepared, practiced, or followed by other Christian denominations, sects, and cults as well, is a reminder, and also a time to observe and prepare the bodies, souls, and spirits that any time Jesus Christ will come back and that the end of the world and end of times can happen at any time that only God the Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity or the Tiune nature of God, knows when will come and happen.
Christmas is most colorful,, decorative, more gifts and the hopes of Family Reunion.. It is not exactly celebrated than just being hoped or expected. Am not Catholic. Am an Evangelical.
