How Do Filipino Women Celebrate The Christmas Season?

It should be interesting to know how do Filipino women celebrate the Christmas Season. That, of course, depends on where they are. Filipino women, as you know, are all over the world, and Christmas is celebrated differently in other parts of the globe. In as much as these Filipino women abroad would like to keep their Filipino Christmas traditions, they are sometimes limited by the culture and traditions of the country they are in.

Filipinos prepare much for Christmas. Christmas in the Philippines is a highly anticipated event. As early as September, many Filipinos already start shopping for gifts in the hope of avoiding the “Christmas rush”. Shopping during the Christmas season can be very taxing, indeed, with people bumping into one another, and ending up choosing as a gift the first thing they get their hands on. If you want to choose more carefully, then you should make the habit of shopping for gifts earlier.

Come October, Christmas songs could be heard in radio stations, and by November, the streets are already glowing with lanterns and Christmas lights in every color. Christmas parties are held in schools and workplaces. Reunions and Homecomings are scheduled around this time. There is an abundance of food, festivities, and everything else you can think of. And that’s not all, apparently.

Filipino women who are Catholics make their celebration of the Christmas Season more meaningful by attending dawn masses for nine straight days. It must be a real sacrifice to wake up very early in the morning and brave the cold air to hear mass, but for them, it’s a wonderful experience. Parish churches in the Philippines are packed with people from the first pew up to the last. Then on the eve of the 9th day, everyone makes time to hear the Christmas Eve Mass.

And of course, Christmas in the Philippines is never complete without the Noche Buena (Christmas Eve Dinner). No family member wants to miss this, ever, not only because of the great feast on the table, but also because it’s one of the few times the entire family can be together in one table, sharing the same food, sharing stories, sharing laughter.

Filipinos abroad wish to be home for Christmas to experience all these. But if they cannot, Filipinas around the world try to make their celebration of this joyous season as Filipino-like as possible. Now what exactly does this mean? Well, they at least try to attend the Midnight Mass and invite friends and family over for Noche Buena on Christmas Eve. Some of them prepare Filipino foods to make it feel like they are in the Philippines.

Anywhere in the world that celebrates Christmas, this is the season where you can afford to splurge on material things and food. Dieting at this time might seem like a big sin, and so for the weight-conscious Filipina, taking the excess pounds off becomes part of the Christmas planning, too.

If you happen to be someone not from the Philippines, knowing how do Filipino women celebrate the Christmas season will work to your advantage when you decide to visit the Philippines around Christmastime.

Please follow and like us: