Monday, September 1, 2014

The Philippine Christmas

When I hear "ber" month, I usually have in my mind that it is the start of Christmas season. Why? Since I live in the Philippines, I can really say that its Christmas at the start on the first day of September. It makes me feel excited for the upcoming Christmas. I'll give you some of the reasons why celebrating Christmas in the Philippines is awesome. 

1. Christmas season starts as early as September. Yes, you heard it right! Most of the radio stations here in the Philippines starts to plays their Christmas song every dawn on the first day of September. Everytime I tune in to my one and only radio station (if you know what I mean.. hahaha) around 4 a.m., they play nonstop Christmas song. In this way, you can somewhat feel that its christmas already where you feel a joyous and heart warming environment. This is also a rainy season where it bring cold breeze which make you feel the cold of Christmas .

2. Misa de Gallo. You really need to wake up as early as 3 a.m. in order to attend the dawn mass or what we called "Misa de Gallo". It is a mass which lasted for nine days starting from December 16 - 24. In this mass, the story behind the birth of Jesus Christ is being read. Some people believe that if you complete all of the nine mass, your three wishes will be granted. After the mass, there are street vendors who sell "kakanin" or native delicacies where you can choose from different variety. My all time favorite that I usually buy is puto bumbong. It is traditionally made from a special variety of heirloom sticky or glutinous rice called Pirurutong which has a distinctly purple color, soaked in salted water and dried overnight and then poured into bumbong or bamboo tubes and then steamed until done or steam rises out of the bamboo tubes. It is served topped with butter or margarine and shredded coconut mixed with sugar. 




3. Celebrating Noche Buena with Family. This what makes Christmas in the Philippines more special. It is the time that your parents, brother or sister which is away from you for almost a year or more return to celebrate Christmas. It feels like yesterday where you are still young and all you have to worry is to wait for the food being served to be eaten. Children are fond of giving and receiving Christmas gifts during Christmas eve. 


4. Christmas Party everywhere. Whether you are working at the office or still at school, Christmas party should not be missed. Christmas party usuall celebrated before Christmas day. This is where Filipinos practice monito-monita. It is a tradition in the Philippines where you need to give a gift to your secret friend or the one whom you have picked during the draw lots of names. Food is also served and don't forget the parlor games which make it a lot enjoyable. 



5. Hanging of Parol in every Houses. Aside from Christmas tree and christmas light, one thing that should not be missed in every house is the "Parol" or Christmas lantern. This tradition has been evolved in every generations. Traditional parol is made up of a bamboo stick and color paper then shaped into a star. Some of it put light bulb to make it glow. Some of it flickers like they are moving. Nowadays, there are diferent varieties of style has been evolved from its basic star shape. Some of this shapes like christmas tree, bells, reindeer and even santa. 



There are a lot of traditions and events on Christmas that you can only experience in the Philippines. That is why you should not missed every Christmas here in the Philippines.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

The Comeback and the Revival of my Blog!

Am I busy that I almost forgot to post on my blog? Or I don't really travel a lot that I can't feature any places that I've been? As a matter of fact, both of these reasons are qualified why I don't have any time writing (though I am not really good in writing) on my blog and forgot to share my experience with you. 

Am I really busy?

Yes. It's difinitely true that I am busy for the past two years that it made me inactive and never care about my blog anymore. I am currently working  in a company at Davao City and I was asigned as an offsource  technical designer in a signing company in California. It is very hard for me to ajust at first since I am not getting used to work at night. In short, I work at nightshift. They said the the client that I have is one of the difficult clients unlike others. Yes, I agree with them.I can compare it with my previous client. I am not saying that my previous client is too easy it's just happen that my current client now is very paricular in every details. So much for explaining on how difficult my client is.. Hahaha. Anyway, I also have my schooling which made me difficult to focus on blogging something, somewhat and somewhere. That is why every weekend , I spend it most of the time relaxing, getting enough of sleep and hanging out with my friends. In that way, I will be able to cope up my stressful week. No idea is also coming up in my mind which makes me feel lazy writing stuffs.

No Frequent Travelling

I'm not into travelling a lot of places now. I don't really know why. It's not that I don't want to travel and explore new places anymore, maybe I prefer to stay at home right now and focus on the things that really needs my attention. Doing asignments, projects, developing systems, finishing pending jobs, doing some household chores (sometimes, hahaha), etc. 

Why I want to revive my blog and write again?

I will reiterate it again that I'm  not good at writing or whatsoever. While I was checking my blogger account, I checked on my update column and visited published comment. I have seen that there are many comments and most of them are spam. But when I tried to read each of these, there are still people who sincerely read my post. This made me realize that it is not a matter of how many comments that you get in every post that you have, but it matters on the people that really reads your post and have their opinions about what I posted through comments (or maybe It just so happened that most the comments that I received are spam, that is why I focus more on those sincere comments. Hahaha). 

Well, I really appreciate those people who read my blog sincerely and because of you, it gives me motivation to write and write and write and write and write(to inifinity and beyond) again. I don't really care if my english is not so good as long as you understand what I am writing. (Hahahaha. Just defending my self just incase there are people who will criticize my grammar. lol)

That's all for now. Will post soon (not too soon but not too far. What?)  about my recent travels and points of view of life.. Hahaha!

K! Thanks! Bye!