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Wherever part of the world we live, December will always be a special month for us, given that after this month, we will see the beginning of the new year. So regardless of the bad things that happened throughout the year, we still always look forward for this month to celebrate it with our family and along with it, there are activities that has become the traditions of the family in order make this month memorable and to look forward for the upcoming year with positive outlook. With this post, let me share the activities that our family partook during this month.
- General House Cleaning
Source: Cal David- Pexels
Between the 1st and 2nd week of December, our family is scheduled to clean the entire house and has been a task shared by the entire family. Here, we do not just move and rearrange the furnitures, we also look for places on the house that needs to be renovated and repair it if it can be done right away and usually done by me. This is something that we were doing ever since I was a child and was because our parents believed that it is a way to bring luck to our home and a perfect way to start the new year. It was also to make sure that the house is ready to welcome my Mom and Sister's Inaak (godchildren) to ask for their Aguinaldo (can be money or material gift) which is also in general part of the Filipino tradition for Christmas. I on the other hand will be at work on that day so my funds are safe 😂.
- Collecting 12 Types of Fruits
Source: PhotoMix Company- Pexels
We are not particularly attached to Christmas Eve and aside preparing some meals for the expected visitors on Christmas along with their Aguinaldo, there was nothing particular that we do on this date but with the next day, we will go the the market to look for 12 different types of fruits in preparation for the New Year's Eve. The 12 fruits was used to represent each month of the year and was usually preferred to be all round in shape as it has the shape of coins and was believed to bring wealth and abundance of food. It was arranged beautifully on a big bowl and was placed on the center of the table and to make sure that it would stay fresh until the year ends, we select the fruits that are not entirely ripe yet so that we can eat them after the occasion.
- Preparing Coconut Salad
Of course not all the fruits will be displayed on the table. Some of them will be used as ingredients Coconut Salad, a mixture of different fruits with shredded coconut poured with cream and condensed milk was a very easy to make dessert but as long as we have this served cold, we would not mind not having any types of dessert and prepare food to have a simple feast for the Media Noche (New Year's Eve) because on the first day of the year is when we will have our family reunion on my grandma's house with my relatives so it was best to not overcook to much to avoid wasting food.
- Exchanging Paper Bills for Coins
With the last day of December, we gonna go exchange some paper bills into coins and used half of them to display on various places such as on top of the drawers, shoe racks, tables and anywhere around the house. When I was a child, we even filled our pockets with lots of coins to the point that my shorts are falling but again, this was on the belief that keeping it will give luck and wealth to the family. After the new year countdown, we will gather the neighbors children outside and used the other half of the coins to throw them at the ground together with candies for the children to come and pick them which is kind of a mini game for the children and also comes with the belief of of sharing the blessings of wealth to your neighbors through their children.
We are a small family of 3 and even with my sister's partner, we are still a small family so we do not have such grand celebration. That said, we still made sure to make this a memorable month for us with this annual activities that we do on December. Even if those activities are superstitious belief at most, we still made them as family traditions because its a tradition that does not hurt anyone and keep the season to be fun and otherwise, I will feel that something is wrong if we do not do them on this time of the year.
That was all from me. Thank you and see you at the next one.
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