Before I begin, I would like to make mention of a film I watched a decade back. It was a made-for-TV entitled Christmas Everyday. In the movie a young boy was forever trapped in a loop of Christmas Day. He would go to sleep at night and wake up to the same Christmas Morning the next day. While, the movie was meant to be a comedy, when I think of it in retrospect, it becomes more than a little frightening. After all, while Christmas is indeed a day for happiness, having it repeat for the rest of your life or for infinity is actually quite horrifying when you stop to think about it.
Okay, on to my point…
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
They say that the Philippines probably has the longest Christmas or Yuletide Season in the world and that, for some reason, we should be proud of this because this tells just how “happy” we are as a people. This is especially true today with radio stations beginning to play Christmas songs to remind people that Christmas is indeed coming. However, during my younger days, this wasn’t the case. The build-up for Christmas began in November after the end of The Day of the Dead, a time when people go to the cemetery to visit their late loved ones. Today though, perhaps thanks in part to advancing technology and easier communications, the Filipino tradition of The Day of the Dead has simply gone out of style. Now, as early as September, people are already putting out Christmas lights and decorations and, sometimes even as early August.
What’s sad, I think, is that we hype Christmas so much that we forget its true meaning. As a young boy and even today, I still see the changing of seasons as a cycle that reflects some of the events in our lives. The Day of the Dead can be sad and somewhat scary (I used to get really scared when watching TV Patrol Halloween Specials), but then, I have always seen the sorrow and fear as a necessary period to usher in the happiness brought in by Christmas so to speak. Remember that in real life, you often have to work hard to get the good things in life. The greatest rewards often belong to those who have faced the greatest challenges and that you can’t jump to your dessert until you finish the rest of your main meal.
I often associate the typical Pinoy’s yearning of Christmas with our pleasantry addiction. We try to ignore the negative but nonetheless important aspects of life because we just want to be happy all the time. I have always believed that The Day of the Dead and Halloween are equally important as Christmas and New Year’s because they remind us of our loss and the sacrifices we’ve had to make for our own betterment. After all, death is the goal of all life and that it is as much a part of life itself as being born. Life, like a year, is a cycle and only by making the best of each season or period in our lives, be it happiness, sorrow or anger, can we truly make ourselves better people.
But how can we find happiness when people refuse to even acknowledge sorrow? How can we know what is good when we don’t know what is bad? Finally, how can we understand the meaning of our own lives when we can’t even bring ourselves to accept the concept of death?
I HAVE RETURNED TO LAY WASTE TO OUR ENEMIES!
“Now, as early as September, people are already putting out Christmas lights and decorations and, sometimes even as early August.”
That’s crazy, Grim. On the contrary, what I hear is a lot of factory workers have no time for Christmas at all because they are forced leave from work if not na-early ENDO.
Failipinos are pleasantry addicts, their behaviour is as easy to control as that of any other junkie. All a unscrupulous Failipino businessman need do is a simple two-step process: Give them what they crave, and then threaten to take it away. Every Failipino in the Failippines plays this game.
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, drugs, or pleasantry addiction. Whether they sniff it, smoke it, eat it, or shove it up their ass, the result is the same: addiction.
Reality is a crutch for the Failipino people who can’t handle pleasantry addiction. Failipinos are addicted to their thoughts. They cannot change anything if they cannot change their thinking.
Christmas – a time of contemplation, of reflection and charity. A celebration of true Christians. During my stay in the Philippines I can make a lot of observations. Many people visit the churches and are likely to actually believe that all their bad deeds are awarded through a small donation in the collection and a little splashing holy water by the priest.
Like many of the “faithful Christians” know the true meaning of Christmas, of Easter or Pentecost, and the related historical background?
But that’s not the issue. The question arises, what is the kind of nonsense that from September, the Christmas decorations will be hanged? But certainly not because you want to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child in a preliminary celebration?!?
Or is it rather the collective carried out to Flaunt over time to their own conscience tranquilizers, how high are the Christian Filipinos?
There are certainly also among the Filipinos devout Christians who actually live by the Christian commandments. But these represent the exception rather. And certainly not those who “Noynoy” or “PNOY” call.
There are plenty of documented facts that prove that these groups do not belong to the Christians.
We Christians know the forgiveness of sins, but not for permanent, which are repeated for a forgiveness the next moment.
“Life, like a year, is a cycle and only by making the best of each season or period in our lives. , , ”
The best of each season? What will probably mean? About corruption, the plundering of their own country? Or the injustice against their own people or even against foreigners? When I see how the government uses the Filipino people and on the other hand put the poverty of most Filipinos, the question arises whether one can call himself a Christian nation.
And faith alone makes the birth of the Saviour or of his resurrection neither tired of Filipino children, yet they are happy or it gives them a future.
In this case, is the belief, as every priest who stressed – Seelig solubilizing faith!
Or in other words – “Do you have bad cards in this world, then you have to wait for the afterlife!”
I know my words are harsh. But a state, the church and politics not clear separation uses the church to calm the crowds and to his own unchristian acts covering.
How different is otherwise explain a 6 to 7-month Christmas? No way through Christianity. But in the Philippines there is no basis.
Here again commemorating the foundation for every Christian!
Who is free of you, any misconduct, let him cast the first stone!
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of God.
3. Thou shalt keep holy the Lord’s Day.
4. Honor your father and mother.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.
Andreas,
Can we reverse #9
“9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
We must read #9 from a male perspective, right?
So lets reverse it and take it from a females perspective:
“9. Thou shalt covet thy neighbor’s husband.”
Implicitly the commandment is okay with the reverse text.
Hahahaha
The new bids.
These are the Philippine Rules.
I loved the Christmas season in America because it never starts until the day after Thanksgiving, which is the 4th Thursday of November. We call that day Black Friday because it is the busiest shopping day of the year.
Christmas is a hated season for me here because it has already started and we are barely done with Christmas from last year.
it’s a full third of a year before christmas day, philippine christmas season is plain dumb
please can we just start celebrating christmas season at least after the day of the dead…
People in America get tired of Christmas season lasting too long and we do not start Christmas season until the day after Thanksgiving, which is the 4th Thursday of November. Once New Years hangovers have gone away most people take down their Christmas decorations the first week of January. We still get tired of it all and here it is Sept. 9 and I’m already tired of Christmas in this country. It gets particularly tiring when every mall has to blare Christmas music at ear splitting levels of noise.
“Once New Years hangovers have gone away most people take down their Christmas decorations the first week of January.”
and
“It gets particularly tiring when every mall has to blare Christmas music at ear splitting levels of noise.”
Where is the Like button when you need one.
I once told the sales lady at SM that I pity them for having to listen to Christmas songs day in and out for a good 3 month. If I would have to work there it would maybe take a week before I bring an AK47 to work.
The sales lady just looked at me with a blank stare and did not comprehend what I was talking about. I could hear the Christmas bells ringing in her brain….. ringi-lingi-ring-ding-dong.
During this time I try to do all my shopping in the place with the least noisy Christmas shit noise. I do without canned and packaged foods and shop only in markets with no loudspeakers assaulting my ears. It takes me about 15 minutes of that shit for me to reach for my 30.06 (which because I’m a foreigner, is back home) only to be frustrated by the fact that I don’t have it.