The ‘Ber’ months have started. Jose Marie Chan and is finally out singing his famous Christmas song. Christmas carols are playing on the radio. Malls have displayed their Christmas decorations and soon they will erect their giant Christmas trees. The world’s longest Christmas celebration has begun.
This early, let’s think of ways to make our Christmas celebration eco-friendly. From decorations to gifts, there are several ways to celebrate without harming the environment. Let’s do the three R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle. Re-use Christmas decor like Christmas trees, lanterns and lights. Reduce by using plants instead of plastic Christmas trees. Reduce paper by using e-cards or recycle using handmade paper greeting cards.
“It is possible to have enjoyable and memorable holidays and buy and spend less this holiday season by embracing some changes in our consumer habits,” says Garrette Clark, an expert in sustainable living with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The UNEP suggests giving home-made gifts, reducing, reducing food waste through proper planning, swapping disposables for reusables and buying local.
I miss the old ways of celebrating Christmas. Today’s festivities are no longer the same as before. Modernization has caught up with the most awaited holiday of the year. What I miss the most are the native delicacies meticulously prepared by relatives and neighbors. Fast foods, instant drinks and commercially produced foods, have slowly replaced home-cooked pinoy food.
Today, most households would rather buy mass-produced rice cakes, leche plan. suman bulagta, ale ubi, and other kakanin, instead of sweating it out preparing and cooking them. It seems everyone is busy and doesn’t have time anymore. When I was a teenager, I did the whole cycle of preparing the ingredients for kalamay from harvesting of coconuts to cooking of the ‘latik’.
It is not only home-cooked food that is fast disappearing. The native parol, made of bamboo and papel-de-hapon, is almost extinct. It has been replaced by plastic covered and lighted modern lanterns. Instead of the traditional star, they now come in different shapes and designs. The yearly family activity of rewrapping the parol is no more.
Modern conveniences and fast-paced lifestyle have greatly influenced the way we celebrate Christmas. The change is not only physical, or material, but something deeper. The intimacy that the Christmas celebration brings to the Filipino family is dampened. The giving of oneself, expressed in the time and effort we pour into preparing our food, the closeness that binds relatives together in preparing for Christmas and the sharing among neighbors is seldom seen or felt today.
It’s a good thing that the traditional simbang gabi or dawn masses have survived the test of time. Churches are still jam-packed with people during these nine-day novena masses. In my hometown Mabalacat City, the Latin hymns which I first heard when I was a young boy, are still being sung.
No matter how we choose to celebrate Christmas, the important thing is not to forget its true meaning- the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is God’s ultimate gift to mankind.