BY this time of the year, many Filipinos would have nearly completed their annual pledge to attend all nine of the early-morning masses or Simbang Gabi in anticipation of Christmas Day.
They would have had their share of the usual fare of salabat, tsokolate, puto bumbong and bibingka. They would also be continuing a long tradition that started in 1587, when Pope Sixtus V granted a petition from Fray Diego de Soria—head monk of the San Agustin Acolman convent in Mexico—for permission to hold outdoor masses to accommodate the large numbers of people who attended the Yuletide services.
As these Misa de Aguinaldo (Gift Masses) were held at 4 a .m.—to allow the Filipino farmers to reach their fields before sunrise, the pope would later on decree that pre-Christmas Masses (and hence, festivities) in the Philippines were nine days long, starting December 16.
Mexico would also have a similar nine-day pre-Christmas period, but this time punctuated with the Las Posadas (“The Inns”), village-wide processions that would reenact Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem and their search for lodging. This would reach the Philippines and become the Panunuluyan held on Christmas Eve.
Spanish missionaries—a number of whom were actually Mexican-born creoles—introduced these practices to the Philippines. They were the ones who encouraged Filipino mass-goers to put up Christmas lanterns or parols fashioned like the Star of David that were similar to Mexican piĖatas and luminarias—either papier-mČché or ceramic decorations that housed candles. They were also among the first ones throughout the archipelago to admire poinsettias— one of the many Mexican plants that found a home in the Philippines—as a Flor de la Noche Buena or a Christmas flower.
The Spanish Crown was mainly responsible for introducing Roman Catholicism to the Philippines but it was Mexican priests and missionaries who demonstrated how that faith is practiced and celebrated—such as during Christmas.
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