Early Christmas Start

Filipinos are known to start the Christmas season early. Once the "-ber" months roll around (SeptemBER, OctoBER.. you get the drift), it is not uncommon to hear Christmas jingles piped into mall sound systems, or holiday decor suddenly for sale under major flyovers.

But for me, nothing rallies up the old Christmas spirit better than singing Christmas carols with my choir, especially the Filipino ones. There's just something about my native carols that make me feel happy and warm inside; they seem to really capture what Christmas in the Philippines is really like.

I still remember my first year as a trainee in my choir learning Tagalog Christmas carols. So much fun because some of the melodies were kinda-sorta familiar... but i had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT I WAS SINGING ABOUT. Memorizing anything in Filipino for me was like memorizing a string of disjointed sounds; ma-ba-da-da-da-nga.. etc. LOL. Not that that I'm an expert now, but trust me, I am far far better now at it than I was before. Mangled Filipino or not though (ya ya... mangled most of the time!), Christmas with my choir, my family, my friends? No other better feeling in the world. Dig through my treasure trove of memories and you'll find many a happy Christmas related ones!

We started singing carols for an upcoming December concert at rehearsals last week. Boy was it nice! Rather timely too as the general mood in the Philippines has been down due to the recent destruction brought on by Ondoy, and I feel it maybe down for some times as we climb our way back out and up. Regardless though, while Christmas this year may not be as festive (though, I could be mistaken, Filipinos can surprise you like that), I do feel it will be more meaningful. If there's one thing Ondoy has taught us, it is to see beyond the material and really appreciate the things that really do matter in life; family, friends and the love that binds us all together.