As Christmas coincides with harvest time, a Spanish friar cleverly scheduled a Mass at the cock's crow, knowing that convert farmers would easily relate to dawn worship before work. This was also inspired by the outdoor morning Masses which Fray Diego de Soria started in Mexico in 1587.
These dawn Masses, aptly called Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster), to this day commence on December 16 - this official start of the Philippine liturgical Christmas - and are held for nine consecutive mornings, as in a novena.
This beautiful tradition is also called Simbang Gabi - literally, evening Mass. Devotees rise before daybreak and brave the dark and the morning chill brought brought about by the northeastern monsoon winds. They shiver and they yawn, but ahh.. it's Pasko. The word Pasko comes from the Spanish Pascua de Navidad - Christmas.
The dawn of December 16 is different from any morning in the Philippines. When the day's first cockcrow is heard, exultation rings throughout the nation as the church bells toll loudly to signal the official start of Christmastime.
There is great rejoicing as brass bands briskly parade down the streets, playing popular marches and lively pasadobles (a SPanish song/dance). Those roused from bed, their eyes still heavy with sleep head straight for their windows to look out and are fully awakened by the familiar music. These brass bands are the "alarm clocks" of Christmas - they dare to break the morning silence, announcing the dawn everyone has been waiting for, has finally arrived.
While Christmas has been in the air for months, and people have been busy with Pasko activities like shopping, decorating and mailing Christmas cards - on December 16, Christmas really begins.
The sounds of this morning are unique, memorable, and mich awaited, most especially in towns and barrios. Children in the streets start to fire bamboo cannons, a native invention, adding husky "boom-boom-booms" to the echoes of the noise-filled morning. In the dawn darkness still enveloping everyone, no one notices that the excited children along the sidewalks are still in pajamas or nightclothes.
In some towns, brief displays of fireworks brighten the still-dark morning sky with multi-colored sparks.
During Misa de Gallo, colorful food stalls line with churchyards, enticing passersby with fragrant churchyards, enticing passerby wtith fragrant bibingka, (a rice cake with grated coconut, carabo (water buffalo) cheese and salted egg baked between layers of live coals) and the silken sweetness of puto bumbong (glutinous violet rice steaming in bamboo tubes). On these chilly early mornings, ritual dictates the downing of the tasty morsels with piping hot native teas made from ginger roots or pandan, (a variety of screwpine) leaves. Stopping at these makeshift stalls gives churchgoers a chance to chat. Parols (Christmas lanterns) decorate many houses along the way to dawn Mass.
The Filipino Christmas is unique and magical. Not only is it one of the world's longest, according to popular saying, it is also the happiest celebration in the Philippines. For the Filipinos, the season is as sacred as it is enjoyable. The country possesses a rich cultural heritage of yuletide customs passed on from generation to generation rituals which today are observed with the same passion and intensity as in years gone by.
by Deacon Leandro and Tessie Centenera of Couples for Christ Albuquerque, New Mexico
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