Sunday, December 23, 2007 De Fiesta: Pampanga, Pasko and the Phoenix By MR de Fiesta Carpe Diem
THERE used to be a time that when you thought about Christmas, Pampanga would never cross your mind. When you speak of tocino and longganisa and lahar, yes... but not when you talk about the season of giving.
But now, Pampanga is synonymous with the Yuletide season as much as Santa Claus is associated with snow and the North Pole - and of course, Pasko. Thanks to Kapampangan ingenuity, Pampanga - for sometime now - has been talked about because of its colorful lanterns.
Now, it's not just about food and delicacy, but creativity and originality. It's not just about Pinatubo and mudflow, but how Kapampangans have risen from the ashes - like the phoenix - and proven to all and sundry that they are not about to be branded as castaways.
It's not just about arts and crafts anymore, or the reality that Kapampangan women can make men swoon with their culinary abilities. It is about the fact that Pampanga has been transformed into the country's Christmas capital.
Being branded as such is an accomplishment in itself. The lantern, after all, symbolizes the festive mood of the season... It represents love and generosity, humility and passion.
Like the colorful lantern, the province is ablaze with felicity and spirit of the season. When you walk in the streets of the City of San Fernando, you can feel the liveliness of the people and the city itself, teeming with colorful lanterns and other symbols of Christmas.
When you hear the children's' laughter in the streets, it's as if you're brought back in time when life was still simple, when everything was not as complicated as it is now. When you look around you and see colors of blue, red, yellow and green, it reminds you that life is colorful with its ups and downs, accomplishments and disappointments.
We may feel nowadays the burdens of life and the economy, but they are not enough to douse our spirits as to the true intentions of the Yuledite Season. The province of Pampanga in itself is a symbol of hope for the hopeless , a symbol of peace for those who grew up in the arms of violence and oppression, a symbol that all is not lost in this world of despair and desolation.
We are still lucky to have food to eat and places to sleep in, friends who support us in times of trial and tribulation... We are still fortunate to have our families and relatives whom we can turn to in times of need, unlike those who have been living in isolation. We are still lucky to have life, unlike those who have given up on living.
Instead of wishing for things to happen to us; instead of desiring for things we cannot really bring with us in the afterlife, we should be thankful this Christmas season that we are where we are. We should be grateful for all the blessings we have received from the day we were born. We should be appreciative of life itself, and how it teaches us lessons every single day.
We should be the ones giving to those in need, to those who have been deprived of life's pleasures. We should be like Pampanga, which has proven its resiliency to the world after the Pinatubo disaster. We should be like the phoenix, which elegantly rises from the ashes after being consumed by fire.
And we should be like the Pampanga lanterns: colorful and brilliant, dazzling and bright - despite of what life has to offer us.
