Christmas time in my country begins at September 1st

in life •  last year 

The Christmas season had already came since September 1st and by then, the radio stations would compete who will be the first to play the first Christmas song on the radio already, signaling that once again a fun and memorable event is near. Christmas is one of the most fun celebrations in the year because almost every people in my country have fond memories of it because it is a time for receiving gifts for the children and depending on how large or rich your clan is, a child can gather so much gifts compared to other kids with not much relatives to go visit and receive their gift whether it is in a form of cash or toys or clothes, whatever. That is why I was envious to my friend before because he has a lot of relatives and he can collect many cash from them and in comparison, I don't have a lot of close relatives living in the same Barrio plus considering that my godmother flew to go in America when I was still younger so I will be lucky if I would accumulate more than 200 pesos during Christmas day.

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Children gets to enjoy Christmas time as they are expecting to wear their best clothes and shoes, goes to their take blessing from their parents first before venturing out to their godparents, close relatives, and elders around the village to pay their respects and expect a little money in turn.

During the day of Christmas, some families would go out and visit their relatives, some would go out and eat or go at some park somewhere and have a picnic, etc. Many kids sometimes would get together with their friends and going house to house but it depends on the kind of community and regional customs but basically the kids would try to collect as much cash or gifts and it is the only time that a kid could have as much cash during that particular year, that is for a regular kid with not much wealthy or no rich relatives or godparents. They will then use the money that they collected for buying snacks and toys, the things that their parents would not normally buy for them because it is either too expensive or it is out from the budget. Well at least, that is what I experienced myself although most of the time, the money that I collected is too much less that I was always expecting.

What is also fun about Christmas time are the foods on the table. I can enumerate the common dishes and foods that we would prepare when I was younger. We have a sweetened Ube or Yam, we often cultivate it ourselves and at the end of the year, it is already good for harvesting. Then my mother would cook some spaghetti, there is also a Flan dessert, macaroni salad, fruit salad, cooked ham although when I was younger my mother was not buying those. The we also have the pork barbecue on skewers. My mother would also buy some bread and cheese plus some mayonnaise as well. More or less that is about it and it is again prepared before New year's eve.


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Every family would prepare special foods that they somewhat can afford on Christmas eve.

The Christmas season is really a fun event that people are always looking forward for it four months before the date of December 25th. For workers they have their own Christmas parties as well as other groups like for students, teachers, office employees, office management superiors, even at my dialysis clinic there is a separate Christmas party for dialysis patients and for the nurses and doctors. For dialysis patients there are giveaways and raffle plus items won from games. Someone would sing a song or two and of course there is a speech given by my Nephrologist. Had it not been for my parents I will never attend it because my backbone just suffers from sitting for a very long time, I cannot even enjoy my food for that matter considering that there is a roast pig served at the table especially maybe on December where there is an already a relative easement for CoViD restrictions.

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Parties are everywhere especially if you belong to some sector of society like being just an employee or worker, chances are you will attend a Christmas party of some type. Here in my country, the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. had passed a law which gives government employees one month worth of basic pay and calls it a "Thirteenth Month Pay Bonus".

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Pixabay

It is only in my country where our government gives a thirteenth month pay for all of its regular employees.


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