The Burden of a "Merry" Christmas

Each year we celebrate Christmas and each year this yuletide season brings us a playground of emotions. And sometimes I ask why a lot find it hard to be happy during this Christmas. Bakit hindi “Merry” ang Christmas ng iba?

Materialism

This season possibly rank as the most festive, highly decorated, symbol infested occasion there is in our calendar. With the endless display of Santa Clause, blinking lights, candy canes, trees, and of course the beautifully wrapped gifts, this season has become such a commercialized event.

And even before we receive our 13th month pay, we’ve plotted already how we’ll (extravagantly) spend them either as gifts for ourselves or for others. Though the kind gesture of giving has been beautifully taught during this time, somehow some of us learned also the value of too much expectation. We get all too frustrated whenever we don’t get the gift we like, or worse we don’t get any at all. We’d somehow manage to carefully list down our Christmas wish list and pray to all the gods that they do materialize somehow.

And have you noticed that theft cases increase during this season? That possibly a lot of them needed to steal just to give the “right” Christmas to their own families?

Family

And speaking of families, and all those thoughts of togetherness, it is during this season that we come to realise the reality that is upon us. That most families are actually somehow “dysfunctional” (pardon the use of word for the lack of a better term, tamad nako mag thesaurus éklat pa eh) - dysfunctional in a sense that most never really get to be “complete”.

Some would have broken families, that during these times we couldn’t help but wish to have time turned back to those happy days. Some would have parents working abroad, a simple greeting on the phone is the only “together” time spent during the yuletide, or if you get to be all techie, web cams have come to much use lately.

And for most in the call center industry, where holidays only get to be in their vocabulary when they’d get a double pay, when Christmas seems to be another normal graveyard shift, families tend to take the bleachers in the game of life. After all, their work brings the food (not the person) in the house. You can never really complain much.

I blame it to those family Christmas posters where the only emotion they give to those who cannot be with their families would be such great longing.

Romance

Second only to Hearts’/ Valentine’s Day, this season seems to ignite the want for people to get “tied up” with someone before the year ends.

Blog titles and even twitter twits would somehow get that familiar phrase “malamig ang pasko.” And I can possibly name 5 songs pertaining to this, like Pasko na Sinta Ko”, and “Miss kita kung Christmas” which starts with “Ang disyembre ko ay malungkot, pagkat miss kita-aah…” (uy, kumanta yan! Dalawa palang yan, kayo na magisip ng iba pa).

Somehow, Christmas was packaged and marketed as a season to be with someone. And people can’t help it if they get that grave feeling of being incomplete being without a partner (or even a date, or two or three) for Christmas.

Weather/ Climate

Ok, so we’ve somehow established that “malamig talaga ang pasko.” And somehow we are luckier that our foreign counterparts where the winter somehow increases the number of depression in people.

If you get all too unlucky, and find yourself alone in this cold winter night, swerte mo nalang kung di ka maglaslas and you’ve got a supply of chocolates to keep your serotonin levels high. Others don’t really fare much with such loneliness.

Though for us, though we don’t have winter, we somehow find ways to appease the cold nights, or for some, caladryl pwede na (bad!).

Unwarranted Events

Some occurrences in our lives leaves us shocked, and they really do not choose any proper or a more convenient day to happen. Like a death in the family, break ups, LQs, family fueds etc.

Of course you cannot tell your Lola, “lola, can you die after New year nalang?” Though boyfriends breaking up with their girlfriends can still be arranged, the time and date can still wait, but still, me mga tanga lang talagang lalake.

But why Oh Why!!!!!
(warning, tatay mode on lecture ahead)

I guess we have somehow forgotten how the original Christmas was celebrated.

It all happened in a manger, not some fancy hotel… laden with hay, not some fluffy bed… shepherds who got off from work to see for themselves the news brought by the angels (who went back to work again and shared the good news thereafter), though yes, there were those gifts from the three wise men (kings?), but still if we see through all of it, it was somehow presented with much poverty, difficulty, and simplicity.

That if we really wanted to find the “merry” in “Merry Christmas” we might need to find what this season is really all about. Definitely not Santa Clause, or the reindeers, or the tree, and didn’t you notice that the only original symbolic object there is today is the star and the manger? No candy canes nor stockings hanging on our chimney stall (naks me chimney).

That happiness does not rest alone on having a partner this Christmas (though pansin ko, lahat humabol at nagka S.O. agad, mga hinayupak!)

Or ham on our table (tapos magtatabaan kayo tapos sisisihin nyo sa pasko, lekat nyo!)

Or expensive gifts to open (tapos irerecycle lang din naman pangregalo sa iba pag di gusto)

That for me, happiness is based on the good news that this season should remind us…

(audience participation naman dyan! Ano nga ba?)

In any case, babati parin ako ng belated na Merry Christmas at Happy New year sa inyong lahat!

Kalooban: the filipino soul in dance

I have a couple of extra tickets for Dec. 5, 7pm... message me at toxic.mind@yahoo.com.

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KALOOB Philippine Music and Dance Ministry presents the story of the Filipino told in a thousand movements

"KALOOBAN"
The Filipino Soul in Dance



December 4, 2009, 3PM and 7PM
December 5, 2009, 7PM

Folk Arts Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila

Watch a KALOOBAN Video Clip (click here)

Inhabitants of the Philippines speak many tongues, yet they are most eloquent in the language of music and movements. KALOOB believes that music and dance are among the most profound expressions that have been given to Filipinos. They are reflections and repositories of the people’s soul; of their unwritten dreams and unspoken realities. It is in such oral traditions as music and dance that histories are etched, and where the tides of culture flow.

This year’s program will highlight some of KALOOB’s best repertoire of indigenous traditions culled from more than a decade of research - from the Ifugao, Maranao, Tagbanua, Tagalog etc. It also includes traditions from the groups’s most recent research missions in Mindanao. Among them are dances from the Tagabawa (Davao), B’laan (North Cotabato), Obo Manobo (Davao and Cotabato), Tigwahanon (Davao), and Western Subanun (Zamboanga).

Tickets available at the Folk Arts Theater and all Ticketworld Outlets
For inquiries, please contact KALOOB: 8321120; 09175492624; kaloobpilipinas@gmail.com ; daybyday@pldtdsl.net

Watch a KALOOBAN Video Clip (click here)

STOP THAT STORM!

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(click here to download the podcast)


Powered by Podbean.com

(click here to download the podcast)

Warning: this might be along post to others, thus you also have the option of just listening to the podcast.

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Ondoy, then Pepeng, practically left us all Filipinos at a standstill… crops all drenched, fish all washed away to the shores, houses submerged, cars overturned.

But then the standstill went on over to a "rampage". A rampage of what we Filipinos often times call… Bayanihan.

Could all these disasters be man made? Caused by our own inequities and disregard towards the laws of nature? A very possible fact.

Could all these have been allowed by God to teach us a very valuable lesson? A most daunting reason for if so, we must be doing something really wrong.

I’ve embedded above what our pastor has to say to all of these. Some of which are funny facts, but they speak much truth. This is also one of the few instances that we hear him bring up the facet of politics in all of these.

I’ve transcribed some of the highlights, but I do implore you all, please do listen to the podcast. I usually write posts for myself and care not if these are being read, but this time, I find real importance in sharing this all to you. Kindly share these as well to others.

Now, let us juxtapose our recent storm with that underwent by Jonah (please take note that below is not the exact transcript of the podcast above but is a mixture of the blogger’s own thoughts and that of the podcast minus some of the political insights).

THE STORM

Jonah was called by God to go to the great city of Nineveh to preach, but instead, Jonah headed on the opposite direction and tried to flee from God. (Read Jonah 1: 1-3)

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent
storm arose that the ship threatened to break up… Jonah 1: 4.

Can this storm be described as a godly call, caused by human disobedience, and perhaps be man made (or at least induced)?

I think so.

With such a storm, the most natural reaction of anyone, would be fear… and the most likely action after is to pray.

Sometimes these are often wake up calls for us all who have forgotten how to call on His name. “Storms” can make people remember God. “Storms” can make people realise what’s truly important.

Also, in other instances, the most insensitive reaction or rather (in?)non-action, would be to sleep on the situation.

Most of us would actually do this in times of our own “storms” and Jonah is no exception.

…But Jonah had gone down below deck, where he lay down and fell
into a deep sleep. Jonah 1:5

And what did the other men in the boat do? As accustomed to being faced with a problem, they had to find out the cause and the most likely solution. And all sorts of investigation pointed towards Jonah.

But what to do? Jonah then gave them the most obvious answer. Jonah fled from God’s grace and disobeyed His commands. The most obvious solution is to bring Jonah back to God’s mercy.

Pick me up and throw me into the sea. He replied. And it will
become calm, I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.
Jonah 1: 12

But the kind sailors instead did their best to row to land instead of heading to Jonah’s request. It was, after all, a brutal thing to do throwing someone out to sea. And with how they treated a problem, they remind me so much of Filipinos. Ready to tread sorts of hardship… “magtiis” becomes like air we breathe. And in times of disasters, we hold on to ourselves, not even to our politicians, but to private citizens willing to help out in their own private ways.

But since the storm was after all, allowed by God, who are they to combat its wrath. Left with no more choice, they then resorted to throwing Jonah off the boat.

They then took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea
gre calm. Jonah 1: 15

And as we all know of the story, God provided one big fish to house Jonah for three days and three nights till the fish was ready to spit him out to shore.

The fish was an instrument of divine restoration for Jonah. In it was made “Jonah’s Prayer” which I bid you all to look at (Jonah 2: 1-10).

And to those who does not know, the story did not end with Jonah on the shore. Jonah then went out to the original plan of God to go to Nineveh and preach his word.

HOW IS THIS RELATED TO OUR PRESENT STORM?

Each of us may as well be symbols of Jonah who in times of “storms” sleeps off solving problems we ourselves have caused.

Or the Jonah who had treaded out of God’s laid out path, politicians who have neglected their duties, bystanders who have been incessantly and unmindfully throwing trash just anywhere.
But in the same manner, we can also be the Jonah who have repented, faced all consequences, mended faults and finally was able to appease the cause of the storm. Change is after all, what we need, and it comes and start from within.

The storm can be a symbol of our ACTUAL/ LITERAL storms, or they can also be SPIRITUAL, EMOTIONAL or even POLITICAL. Each of us has their own storms.

Storms that have led to the flooding of streets with clogged drains out of our own trashes; overflowing of our rivers due to the lack of original water/ river paths which we have “reclaimed” to be new lands.

And sometimes we forget why our ancestors built their houses on stilts such as our bahay kubo. Aside from the heat, the elevation protects them from water rising, Tagalog after all means Taga-ilog (which manila originally had plenty of).

And my most favourite character in the story is the Fish.

Notice the use of the fish. It was used as a vessel to isolate, teach, be humbled, guide, navigate and deliver Jonah to his “Nineveh.”

Three days and three nights were spent on self restoration.

And notice that it was when they threw Jonah out that the storm suddenly stopped.

And I firmly believe that with the recent storm that we went through, we were somehow able to throw out our own Jonah’s.

And along with this reason, I believe that the second storm that was supposed to hit Manila again didn’t push through also because MANY HAVE PRAYED.

It’s funny how recent events, wether the death of a democratic icon, the destruction of homes by a storm has brought out the best in all of us.

And as we continuously throw out the “bad Jonah” in us, we are continuously placed in our own “Fish” for our own correction, restoration and redirection.

And whether or not there’s truth to outrageous rumors of having the “end” being near, I think God is still good, making us ready for that day.

So, what “Jonah” have you thrown out recently?

Or shall we throw out the Jonah in the Malacanang palace? (sorry my own attempt to humor).

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Special thanks to:

Day by Day Christian Ministries Techie stuff divisision for the cd copy. And since I don't have much time in my hands, thanks to friends who have helped me out in splicing, file convertions.. techie things that I really wouldn't know anything about and for uploading in podbean. Now... back to work, back to work... see you next weekend! But I do have some autoposts for you in the coming days. hehe.