Guilty as charged! Yes, I was .. I used to .. like what the many of you are probably doing now. I realized it's almost "Noche Buena" that's .. to keep it simple let me just call it "dinner at Christmas Eve.. hmmm.. glutton .. more of why?.
How could I just commit gluttony on that night? By the way, that night.. I was told that it was the night Christ was born. The moment the clock strikes at midnight it's no longer considered Dec 24 right?
Yes, the long wait while staring and drooling at every delicious thing your parents prepared on the table starts the moment you wake up and find out it's Dec 24 so when midnight strikes, you'd hear everyone being so chirpy and trying to get the first whatever food they could on their plate.
Can you imagine having more than just 10 dishes on your table and sometimes more than 20 because your parents and your generous neighbors decided to exchange food with each other because the more the bigger the possibility of getting diabetes is! .. I mean ~~ the merrier!
I remembering preparing what we're going to eat for Noche Buena with my Mom and my two sisters. My Mom can't cook but she can make really YUM salads my friends would even haunt me just for a taste of them. My father does most of the cooking during that night.. just the normal or usual, Filipino dishes - spaghetti, pancit, pancit malabon, palabok, fried chicken or anything that needs cooking.
My Mom's task was to make salad and since she can't and probably was not a fan of cooking she made us help slice the fruits for the fruit salad, prepare the pasta shells aldente for the macaroni salads or de-bone and pull the chicken meat for her chicken salad a week before Noche Buena night.
I surely like it helping her during those days as you already know I love cooking. What I dislike the most was shopping and going around wet and dry market getting all the ingredients all ready. I think my Mom was mostly broke during the Christmas.
From what I was told she earned more than everyone else but even though they give her Christmas bonuses I think ... with all the spending she did to prepare all those food, the gifts for us and for her friends and who knows what ever else my Mom does but I suspect she sent money to her folks and siblings in the North during that time of the year .. I guess my Mom was super broke during those days.
How about you? Is all this observing the rituals of this holiday hurting your wallet already?. I hope not!
I've always admitted about being bold questioning my parents why we had to prepare that much back then and it was not because I didn't feel like eating but rather, I really couldn't understand all of what they go through to.
I think my Mom won't mind if I use the word "impress" and "show off" that we have plenty of yums in the fridge. Of course, I love the yums and when I was younger I love it that a neighbor or two goes to our house and get served with all the yums because by then we get to have them, too because the more people eat together ... ~~~ the merrier!
Yes, I confess, it was all sugared, unhealthy and fattening. I remember always gaining a kilo or two after December. How about you are you starting to look like bloated or pregnant? Are you trying to make the weighing scale in your bathroom lie now, adjusting it to less than a kilo or two before stepping on it? 15% to whoever would dare admit in the comment section!
For years, it went on like that and year after year the school fees go up and my younger sister and I were both sent to private schools so I suppose my Mom's wallet was hurting almost every month that she was already having a hard time make ends meet specially during this time of the year she succumbed on having a credit card.
Since I was aware of what my Mom was going through though she never spoke nor complained about it perhaps because I was the eldest kid, there's this kind of an instinct feel we are gifted about descerning how exactly our parents feel and I knew deep inside my Mom was in having a hard time.
As inquisitive as I am, my teenage version asked her why we had to do all those. Dared tell her that I don't think that Christmas would not feel complete without a feast for a Noche Buena.
I even dared question why on earth such a ritual exists when Christ Himself, the very reason this celebration exist (unless you have any other reason, that's the only one I have - He was born this day and I was taught that because of that I was given the chance to have an eternal life which I'd get to find out what its like later).
He, Himself was born in a humble manger, with just the shepherds, there... ...with just the three kings bearing gifts and there was never a mention that that night He had fruit salads, macaroni salads, spaghetti, lechon, a turkey and everything delicious served to induce you diabetes .. I mean ... to celebrate His birth.
In fact, if I were to search a word in the dictionary I'd use - SIMPLE to define that night...
My Mom used to explain it to me by asking back ; "Love, we celebrate your birthday with food and a party don't we? I said ;"no, never but you do with my sisters" because I always prefer cash or a certain costly gift over a party and for whatever reason we often had less money when the month I was born came but my aunt and grandparents had always compensated for my parents shortcomings so I never mind. Of course, I had no choice but to shut up and dare not ask further.
Deep inside I have always wondered what about our poor neighbor, they couldn't even afford buying just rice sometimes, they would knock on our door or the other neighbor's door for some ... I have often felt sorry when the Noche Buena arrives cause not many people go there to bring food since they have nothing to exchange them for.
My Mom was also ever generous, if she'd run as a Barangay Captain in that place she'd probably win because she wasn't just famous, my Mom was a saint to them I guess. She and her best friend would bring that family, everything we have and for us kids - it was but right.
It went on year after year, we all committed gluttony every time its Noche Buena hour in our house or which ever house of my other relatives I was in when the clock strikes midnight until the year my Mom's boss was ambushed and the company she was working for had to let go a lot of them and my Mom was one of the accountants who got laid off.
That year, the Noche Buena was different, it was simple but I noticed that all of us seem tensed in the house that night, myself included. I was already matured since I was already going to the University. I was already in my junior year at 17 and I still remember how sad and shy my Mom was when she was doing that exchanging food with the neighbors.
When the clock struck midnight that year, our table was full of food given by our neighbors but we barely touched them. I remember, going straight to bed that night and the next morning, I remember asking my Mom how they were and making an excuse I didn't really feel like eating.
Deep inside, I felt free ...from all the obligations that whole week before Noche Buena that was used to be attached to it. That was the very first Noche Buena night I could just hit the bed early and wake up fresh in the morning because I didn't have to wait till my tummy felt lighter so I could finally go to sleep which took till sometimes 2 or 4 am. I begged the heavens it goes on the same way year after year but I also was aware how painful that was for my Mom so somehow, I just kept it to myself.
For some reasons, money seems to follow my mother she can make them out of straw and just when my sisters and I think she's going to run out of it she gets more of it and the history of how Noche Buena was repeats itself during those days.
I guess, no matter how much life beats you to teach you a lesson that you don't have to put up a feast, buy an expensive gift or wear any fancy outfit for the Christmas Eve to prove that you are celebrating His birth .. if your folks, your ancestors and whoever else is in the bottom of your family tree have been doing all those rituals, it would be hard to scrape it off your skin .. perhaps, it was my parents' case.
Unfortunately, I was already a free bird flying and living on my own nest, I did not bother joining my family doing that extravagant frenzy after that sad Noche Buena we had and you know what, I'm still alive, never super broke during this season, nor stressed out nor upset nor embarrassed that I have nothing you can call a feast on my table or in the fridge to serve anyone because I don't believe that it can prove that you really are celebrating Christ's Birth .. the very reason that word Christmas exists.
No, this time I won't ask about what's waiting for you on your table now but I hope you won't mind if I leave you this message...
Eat moderately, drink moderately, remember gluttony is one of the deadliest sins. Think of your heart.. and I wish you all a very Merry, Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year!
This content's 100% mine. I drew the pic above on my Note 1.
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