The Construct

Help! Help! I'm being repressed!

People would consider doing “the same thing” every year during that long stretch of 100 Days before Christmas up until Epiphany (Three Kings to all other Catholics not institutionalized by Catholic private schools).

Sure, there’s the Filipino part to it. The parol. The dawn masses. The noche buena. A couple of things that I really don’t get is the fake plastic pine trees and mall Santas. Yeah, a pine tree in the tropics. (Are you suggesting pine trees migrate?) History and social conditioning tells me that there’s just something plain wrong with some old Caucasian guy with Southeast Asian kids sitting on his lap. (Racist!)

And there’s always the commercial aspect to it making more jaded people (like me) believe fervently. December’s peppered with all sorts of Christmas parties that it becomes obligatory for one to blow a substantial part of one’s income on gifts when there’s always a very low chance that the gift would really put a smile on that person’s mug.

We’ve even institutionalized it with the whole exchange gift/monito monita thing complete with a price cap. Never mind if we all have better uses for that money. Remember Sheldon Cooper’s remark on gift-giving. Might as well exchange X number of pesos every year. Set up a trust. Have it earn interest.

It’s quite nice to know that despite all of this blatant bullshit, some people still adhere to the whole spiritual aspect of Christmas. The spirit of unconditional giving and the value of the family.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

It’s quite funny how many would consider Christmas caroling as a Pinoy Christmas tradition as Pinoy as puto bumbong and the parol. (Though one can always argue that Christmas or Christianity for that matter is native.)

It’s quite interesting to look back at past Decembers and ponder the evolution of the songs kids sing to get a merciful peso or two from households.

There’s always the Pinoy staples Ang Pasko ay Sumapit, Sa May Bahay Ang Aming Bati, Pasko Na Naman, the favorite encore, “Thank you. Thank you. Ambabait/ambabarat ninyo. Thank you.” and all of their derivatives.

And then there’s also Christmas in Our Hearts by Jose Mari Chan which had become an anthem ever since it was made popular more than a decade ago.

Funny that just recently, I start hearing Boom-Tarat-Tarat being sung by carolers. WTF, right? (But maybe that’s just the burgis in me.) I’m currenly a pop culture philistine and a few Google strokes revealed that a Boom Tarat Pasko Na remix actually exists.

But come on. Does anyone really still feel the spirit of Christmas with that Willie racket? I mean, sure the caroling repertoires established over the years need something fresh or probably a bit of a reboot.

But what’s wrong with going back to basics and making caroling more musically pleasing? Do some do-re-mis and vocal warmups or some shit. Bring a guitar or a tambourine. I remember back in the day when kids were expected to have a decent grasp of the English language that they’d still have more traditional Christmas jingles like Silent Night or the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Anyway, what do I really know? I always fancy Carol of the Bells to be the best soundtrack for murder montage scene (a la Godfather) set during a Christmas season.

Well, at least that raises the performance value of carolers since they do sport some gyrations and dance moves while singing Willie.