"excerpts from Ambeth Ocampo's column in the the PDI quoting an American School Teacher in Capiz in the early 1900s." Ambeth has his comments in the paragraph. I am putting in my comments as well in red font, being a born and bred Capizeno myself
Ambeth Ocampo: Fortunately, I found a whole chapter on "Christmas in a Woman's Impressions of the Philippines" by Mary Fee, an American school teacher in Capiz in the early 1900s. She wrote:
Mary Fee: "The Filipinos do not understand Santa Claus or the Christmas tree. The giving of presents is by no means a universal custom of theirs, and such as are given on the festival of the Tres Reyes or the Three Kings, some six or eight days after Christmas. Mrs. C. decided to give a Christmas festival to certain Filipino children, and she actually managed to disinter, from the Chinese shops, a box of tiny candles, and the little devices for fastening them to the tree. No Christmas pine could be found, but she got a lemon tree, glossy of foliage. With the candles and strings of popcorn and colored paper flowers, this was converted into quite the natural article."
Me: This is pretty much the practice in Spain. When I was there as an International MBA student 2003, I was kinda surprised to learn that the Feast of the Three Kings was seemingly more important celebration-wise, for the kids than Christmas day itself. Much of gift giving was done on the Feast of the Three Kings."
Ambeth: This could probably be the first Christmas tree displayed in Capiz. Everyone in town seemed to have come out to see it. I only wish I had a Filipino account of the Christmas tree so that I would know what they really thought about something that is so common to us today.
More intriguing in Fee's account was the description of a toy or lantern I have never seen:
Mary Fee: "Nearly every child was displaying a toy that seems to be the special evidence of Christmas in the Philippines-some sort of animal made of tissue paper and mounted on wheels. It is lighted within like a paper lantern, and can be dragged about. Great is the pride in these transparencies, and great the ambition displayed in the construction. Pigs, dogs, cats, birds, elephants and tigers, of most weird and imposing proportions they are, and no feuds and jealousies grew out of their possession."
Me: "Honestly I do not have a clue what this is, maybe something similar to the Piñatas of Mexico, perhaps, as they took in different animal shapes, probably using papel de Japon, not tissue paper. None of this tradition has remained among the childhood toys/ traditional games in Capiz, perhaps, something that came in vogue at the time."
Ambeth: Today our lanterns are star-shaped and rather boring. Fee even describes a parol hung in church and made to fly above the heads of the church-goers:
Me: "This parol tradition inside the church is still carried on to this day! Well at least when I was attending Christmas Mass there at the Eve of Christmas day itself several years ago. Can anyone confirm if this still is being carried on?"
Mary Fee: "At midnight the church bells began to toll, and the three or four hundred ball guests adjourned en masse to the church. . . "
Me: The Circulo Galante Christmas Ball!!! We still had this when I was a kid, until it was stopped by Roxas City society after a series of calamities befell the province, to avoid being accused of too much ostentatious disply in the middle of hard times. The Ball is a society event, all the ladies in expensive formal floor length gowns/ternos from popular designers, the men in their best barong finery and the members would dance the Rigodon de Honor. (Honor March/Dance) while a select number of youngsters, myself included several times, danced the coutillion. The Program was being emceed in Spanish, and there was a reception line at the Main entrance, everybody who came in was being announced. heheheh. A lot of culture in such a small City, even at that time. haha.
Mary Fee: "This building is larger than any I can remember in America, except the churches of Chicago and New York, and was packed with a dense throng. It was lighted with perhaps two thousand candles, and was decked from lantern to chapel with newly made paper flowers. The high altar had a front of solid silver, and the great silver candlesticks were glistening in the light. "
Me: "Wow, imagine at that time! she says the Capiz Cathedral, was larger than any building in America that she can remember save for the St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and the other one in Chicago. Wow!!! Then she describes that the Main Altar , the Retablo, was made of Silver! I wonder where this is now. Sad to say, Much of the Capiz Cathedral's renovations since the 1900s have been without any architectural restoration consultation. For instance, some priest just decided to have it painted blue last year, on a whim. without regard for the fact that it has always been beige. And also, much of the restoration of the Cathedral facade after the war, was not very faithful to how it originally looked. Probably something like the facades of the churches in Panay Town or Dumalag, which retained the stone brick facades!"
Mary Fee: "The usual choir of men had given place to the waits with their tambourines, though the pipe organ was occasionally used. The Mass was long and tedious, and I was chiefly interested in what I think was intended to represent the Star of Bethlehem. This was a great five-pointed star of red and tallow tissue paper, with a tail like a comet. It was ingeniously fastened to a pulley on a wire which extended from a niche directly behind the high altar to the organ loft at the rear of the church. The star made scheduled trips between the altar and the loft, running over our heads with a dolorous rattle. The gentleman who moved the mechanism was a sacristan in red cotton drawers and a lace cassock, who sat in full view in the niche behind the high altar. There seemed to be a spirited rivalry between him and the tambourine artists as to which could contribute the most noise, and I think a fair judge would have granted it a drawn battle."
Me: "This tradition exists to this day! I mean it was still there when I was attending Christmas Eve Mass (The Main Christmas High Mass officiated by the Archbishop at 12 midnight) The Lantern, a rather huge one, pulled by a pulley from the Choir Loft to the Altar, representing the Star of Bethlehem to Signal the birth of Christ, the lantern's trip ends just in front of the Altar by 12 midnight. Wow, I never knew the tradition dates back in history back to the Spanish Times, no one even knows probably, this is one for the books"
In other travel accounts of the period, the same thing is basically said: midnight Mass was accompanied by a pipe organ, an orchestra or band and people sang a lot. Mass was long and boring for the American Protestants who thus detailed the church decoration rather than the Catholic service.
Me; "What could you expect, the Main Christmas Mass, sung in Latin to boot, is really looooong even to this day."
Mary Fee: "Mass was over at one, and we went back to our ball, and the supper which was awaiting us. I shall speak hereafter of feasts, so I will give no time to this particular one."
"...I was once more yielding to slumber, when the church bells began, and some enterprising Chinese let off fire crackers. I gave up the attempt to rest, and rose and dressed. Then the sacristan from the church appeared in his scarlet trousers and cassock. He carried a silver dish, which looked like a card receiver surmounted with a Maltese cross and a bell. The sacristan rang this bell, which was most melodious, went down on one knee, and I deposited a peso in the dish. He uttered a benediction and disappeared. After him came the procession of common people, adults and children, shyly uttering their Buenas Pascuas..."
Me: "Every Christmas Day, some sacristan would go to the houes, carrying a small statue of the born Christ, the families where to kiss the statue and give donations in the box"
These accounts show how much we have changed and continue to change in the past century.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment