There is no Christmas in any other part of the world like the Filipino Christmas. There are many Christmas traditions which have spread worldwide because of the diaspora. However, the one tradition that seems to have existed for centuries is the gathering of the family for the traditional Christmas meal. Food therefore is at the center of the Filipino Christmas. According to the late Doreen Fernandez, the highly respected cultural historian and food critic known for her essays on Philippine culture and traditions, food is central to Filipino Christmas celebrations not just for its flavors but for what it represents: ‘Family, community, shared history and the joy of being together.’
The important part of food at Christmas time isn’t just what is eaten but who you eat it with: ‘Returning family members, relatives abroad, friends and neighbors illustrating the deep cultural value of community gatherings during the holidays.’
In her writings, Fernandez does not just catalog dishes but she uses food to explore Filipino culture. For her, food is memory because ‘it carries stories of childhood, kinship, loss and joy.’
Food to her is also identity because it is part of what it means to be Filipino, especially during moments when family and community gather. Food is tradition because it connects past influences – Spanish, Malay, local customs – and brings them together in seasonal expressions that feel uniquely Filipino.
Here are excerpts from an essay ‘The Christmas Table’ by Fernandez which she wrote in December 1986. Although this was written four decades ago, it remains relevant, which is proof that this has become tradition.
‘What do you usually have on your table at Christmas? Each Filipino family and, for that matter, each family anywhere that celebrates Christmas as something more than a holiday, usually tries to have what traditionally is Christmas to them even if they are abroad and have to go to great trouble to achieve this. This is because it is not only Misa de Gallo and star lanterns, panunuluyan and belen, gifts and cards and trees that make Christmas but family togetherness around the feast, modest or lavish, native or Spanish or mixed.’
‘The traditional native Christmas is the result of syncretism – a blending of the Nativity feast introduced by the Spaniards with Christianization and the native pre-Spanish feasting occasioned by the cycles of agricultural seasons and lifestyles. Thus, the foods of this Christmas are generally rice-based: the golden cheese-topped bibingka with the moist grated coconut, and the violet puto bumbong sprouting from bamboo tubes to which one looks forward about the dawn chill and the tambourines of the Misa de Gallo; the Cebuano suman budbud or puto maya; the Pampango anise-flavored putong sulot and panara; the Vigan tinubong cooked in bamboo tubes over smoldering rice husks for Media Noche; the Laoag molasses-flavored tupig. All are rice cakes which celebrate our staple food, the staff of our life.’
Here are other relevant excerpts from another essay, ‘Tasting Filipino Christmas’ which put into context the food on our Christmas table.
‘The Noche Buena or night of goodness is to the Filipino not just Christmas to which the term refers but also specifically the meal shared by the family after the Midnight Mass. It is also called Media Noche which means midnight because in some families, no one is allowed to eat till after the Midnight Mass; one fasts especially from meat for this Christmas morning feast. It is not usually shared with guests, only with the nuclear family, the very closest and dearest.
‘Yes, Christmas is family time and food comes from family traditions. Christmas is one of the Filipinos’ most precious statements of what they are.’
Filipino Christmas traditions are deeply intertwined with the strong Catholic faith of the Filipino people. One very unique tradition that has become widespread overseas because of the Filipino diaspora is the Simbang Gabi. The official Christmas religious tradition begins with the nine-day dawn masses. Around the world, many Catholic churches have begun to celebrate and hold these dawn masses as regular pre-Christmas celebrations.
During the Spanish colonial period, the Christmas season coincided with the rice harvest season when farmers would go to the fields at the crack of dawn to harvest their crops. In order to accommodate these farmers’ work schedule, novena masses were celebrated at 4 a.m. This has now become such a part of Filipino Christmas tradition that today, even in urban centers like Metro Manila and in foreign cities where there are Filipino communities, this practice continues even where there are no farmers.
I wish that this Christmas, every Filipino especially the poorest of the poor are able to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christmas in a truly meaningful way.
Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!