Category: Pop Culture

“If Only A Tricycle Can Drive Me Home This Christmas….”

This Christmas Eve, over a couple of million Filipinos work overseas defying the extreme biting weather, racial discrimination, abuse, violence, and loneliness. What makes it more difficult for most of these OFW’s is that they have to (not) celebrate the Christmas season away from home.

I could imagine a mother working as a domestic helper in the Middle East sobbing like a child as she misses her young kids. She’s dying to embrace their little bodies as she washes off the bodies of children she’s not even related to. How she wish she could prepare and serve the Noche Buena for them. But 12 midnight is her work’s rush hour, thousands of miles away from home.

Or an engineer father in Africa who has never been home for more than 2 years and has never even witnessed the birth of his first and only child. He only wishes to spend one day with his child and wife. Just today. Just for tonight. Continue reading “If Only A Tricycle Can Drive Me Home This Christmas….”

Our Frugal Yet Elegant Wedding

December is one of the favorite months for getting married. It’s also one of the most expensive months because of Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

My wife and I dreamed of having an elegant yet simple church wedding. But after praying over and realizing the importance of a life-long marriage than focusing on having an extravagant wedding, we decided to have a pretty frugal one but can still be described as great and unforgettable. Continue reading Our Frugal Yet Elegant Wedding

What “Simbang Gabi” Should Mean Today

The Simbang Gabi (translated as Night Mass) is a devotional nine-day series of Masses practiced mainly by the Roman Catholics, perhaps a few Eastern Catholics, and the Aglipayans in the Philippines in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary in anticipation of Christmas.

There are also a handful of Evangelical Christian and Protestant churches (Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc.) that have adopted this beautiful tradition of early morning worship in preparation for the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ the Messiah.

It is held from December 16 to December 24 and is usually done as early as 4 or 5 in the morning. Although a lot of churches have already adopted the anticipated night worship services/Mass for those who can not attend the early morning Mass. The last day of the Simbang Gabi which falls on Christmas Eve is called Misa de Gallo, which literally means the “Rooster’s Mass”, in remembrance of the Filipino farmers during Spanish colonial period who had to attend Mass at 4 AM so they can set to work on their fields by 6 AM. Continue reading What “Simbang Gabi” Should Mean Today