It's too quiet here. Come to think of it, it's 4 days before the Big Days. Yes, you saw that s after the word day and that's cause they got both the 25th and the 26th as the Big Days here. By the way, those days don't really necessarily mean anything attached to any religious observation to some here either.
Some just use it to have some sort of a family reunion, eat together, pretend we're okay as a family even though we're not (I guess that's a thing about adults and that's the magic these two days do ~~ bring everyone in peace) or visit some long time no see friends. Sounds sad doesn't it? That's not always the case although, some have this but many groups of people are helping reunite such many during this time of the year.
By quiet, I don't mean mousy quiet .. it's just I guess I was used to how noisy and jolly Christmas is in my country. Of course, I still hear cars come and go even late at night where I live here but even though I don't see those two days as a big a deal as the many does, I have to admit I miss the sound of children singing the carols at night. They only play Christmas songs in the malls or the bus and perhaps some houses do, too (though you'd never hear them play it party music loud here) but where I came from it would haunt you even in a public toilet.
I still remember my first Christmas Caroling galore. I was three, yes, I was three but those memories are vivid. I grew up in the countryside and my grandparents and their whole clan's Catholic so yes, I, too, used to observe every ritual associated in this season when I was young including inflicting deafness among our neighbors.
As soon as the last week of November arrives, my two best friends and I would go around stores collecting bottle caps of soft drinks. We'd hammer each of them flat till you can barely see the coating on any of it. Funny part is one of my best friends belong to a family whose religion doesn't observe the rituals of what most of you call - Christmas Day but she never missed any of this event. I guess that's the best part about being a kid, so free, no restriction, you're given the pardon of not understanding what you're doing so it's all allowed.
We'd then pull a clothes line or two and just prepare getting scolded by any of our parents for doing that, burrow a hole in the middle of those flatten bottle caps, hook one end of the cut clothes line in them, knot it with the other end and make a tambourine out of it.
I remember excitedly waiting for the calendar to turn its page cause that would mean time to use them flattened bottle caps tambourine of ours. The first night of December is the best night of them all, every house we knock on to is still very generous.
By that I meant, getting 25 peso cents per house and imagine us going through a lot of houses from 5 to 7 pm because we will have to get back home before it gets too dark and it's not because you could get kidnapped or raped outside but because we were conditioned about "aswangs" or Philippine monster tales which most of us dreaded back then so we'd really go home sometimes even before 6 pm just to not be eaten by any of those characters in our folks monster tales, to the point that we even ask people in the houses we sang carols for what time it is to make sure we could get home before it gets too dark.
During the first week of December, people would still open their doors and still give us 25 cents and we'd be lucky to get 50 cents or 1 Philippine peso (imagine, these days the peso and $ rate is $1 = 45 to 50 peso so do the math and you know what we were having.) and we'd normally get 5 pesos in a night and we'd divide that to how ever many we are cause sometimes, my two best friends' siblings tag along cause the more the merrier!
The second week would be a drag and I can't blame our neighbors. Imagine getting a dozen of groups of caroling kids how much would that cost you a night? A middle man's bonus would probably not be enough to reward all of those groups. Nevertheless, nothing stops us from meeting night after night to inflict deafness to our neighbors.
Inflict deafness? Why do I keep saying that? It's cause back then I think we were all tone deaf (laughs) and we were kids so we were shameless! We were all in competition - singing the loudest among each other. Can you imagine a chorus of albatross singing the Christmas Carols? I bet you wouldn't even dare - so there.
Some nights, we'd sing a row of ten or more songs and wait till the door opens but the neighbor must have had too much their ears went all close and probably locked up because back then headphones still don't exist but as you can see we've successfully inflicted deafness in our neighborhood for they no longer open their doors at all no matter how many carols we've screamed at them outside their house.
The only night it gets quiet is when the 25th hits the calendar cause by that time, we're all busily waiting and trying to sneak out eating whatever is on the table for "noche buena" that's dinner at midnight (I realized how ignorant we were back then - health wise , cause eating after 8 is very very bad for the blood sugar and there are many studies and health professionals who'd support that! and the siren of the ambulance in Manila were the only witnesses to that).
There were years when even after the 25th we'd still go sing the Christmas Carols and the neighbors get their hearings back but their kindness and patience are all used up by this time, they'd really blatantly shoo us away by then. (laughs)
I did this till I was 12 and that's because I grew up with this kind of conditioning because I can't really say it was our culture but rather we just adopted it from the big uncle Sam. Back then, I didn't need any explanation nor to ask why we had to do all these during those days, back then I was just going with the flow as a kid. I was a kid, oblivious of the whys of the many rituals the world around me observe.
As I have written last year, I don't observe any of those rituals attached to those two days and come to think of it, I'm still alive. The only difference is I'm more relaxed and I don't feel obliged doing any of those things the majority does when this time of the year comes, however, I have to admit I miss the deafening singing of children every night, every single year that I am here. I guess, there are things that even though I no longer believe nor do.. haunt me because they were associated with pastel colored memories of my childhood.
I guess, because tv was not invented during those days yet or perhaps they were but my whole generation didn't have them at home, we've often roamed the streets till before 6 during what the majority calls Christmas time singing carols at the top of our lungs and merrily share ice candy or iced halo-halo ( frozen fruit salad in an ice plastic bag ) on the nook of which ever store we bought them from every after those nights we went around inflicting deafness around our neighborhood.
Here, it's deafening quiet .. in a sense that there's no such a thing, the only noise I hear outside are the barking of dogs, the cars pulling over to park or the sound of the rain dropping on our roof at night. So I wonder ... are you .. like me 40 or older? What was Christmas season like during your childhood days? How did you and your friends spend those days back then? 15% upvote
to anyone who'd share theirs at the comment section.
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greetings, @englishtchrivy.
I am not catholic, but my Christmas season was more or less like yours.
I never had to sing those carols though;
my neighbours knew me, and they would give me money before I'd even start my singing :D
That traumatized me as a person, and it took me years to get over :D
ahahahahah
that's funny :D
well you should have seen our neighbors wait for us back then just to shoo us away but at least they gave us change :D
hahaahha traumatized lol
thank you for reading my goblin changling friend
and did u notice how elegantly i evaded your question about age?
thx for resteem.
Thank you for posting @englishtchrivy.
Lovely drawing mon ami. Carolers with tamborines....sweet.
What a remarkable memory you have.....wonderful memories of sound, food and peoples.
Christ's birth is used by religion and others for their purposes however no matter how it is misrepresented....the truth wins out...just as you have experienced and now enjoy the season in your own quiet way.
Christmas caroling is meaningful to those who celebrate Christ's birth and it would be lovely to look forward to carolers coming by and inviting them in for a warm wassail and biscuits....especially children. Thank you for the reminder of another period in time. ^__^
Wishing you a lovely season dear @englishtchrivy.
thank you for the best wishes mon ami
I totally agree that it's being commercialized and it pains me as much as the many to watch the many being aware of it yet they succumb to those propaganda and yes its true essence seem to be shadowed by that misrepresentation
I love songs that are meant for Christmas they are mostly about love, giving and receiving, sharing and caring and most of all love.... to its true essence !
unfortunately, I only get to see carolers back when there as a place here called Ravenstein, they have a very unique tradition back then .. I didn't know that the last time I went there would be my last time for they now stopped doing it for safety purposes ..there I could enjoy caroling groups of a mix of adult and kids who really CAN sing with costume and all.. I really miss that ..this year, we didn't get to go to the border which was supposed to be every weekend of December ..for Weinachtmarkten :( they also have some carolers there at times ..
luckily I have my own playlist of Christmas song in my utube channel that I could just play whenever I feel like it :)
Happy Holidays and A Much Blessed New Year dahlin! To you and Mr. Bleujay!
Nice to hear thoughts about Christmas from childhood.
I live in their story and the joy of what you do.
Are sure you looked forward to doing it every year.
Little pleasures are great pleasures.
Nice to read @englishtchrivy
thank you .. what was it like in your time?
although.. I remember you must be the same age as my ribbiting friend here so if you don't want to spill it's alright :)
My age is young 63, is a 1954 model.
In my childhood Christmas we were not forced into church, even though large parts of the family went to church. But we always looked forward to Christmas because then we watched short films by Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy's and many disney movies on canvas that were mounted on the wall of the biggest local photographer in town. Called, but fun for us the kids and it was free. Also remember that we fooled packets of shoes boxes wrapped in paper that looked like Christmas gifts. The package we attached a long band to and put it in the middle of the street and housed us in a port room. When it stopped a car and they went out to pick up the gift we pulled it to us (not so much traffic and many cars at the time).
There was always a lot of fun with it. We youngsters often found innocent things to have fun. Otherwise, Christmas Eve was celebrated traditionally with grandparents aunts and uncles with good food and Christmas packages.
hahaha.. you're not a car!
okay thanks for sharing that it sounds very different, too but so much fun and sounded like not some obligations
I could relate to watching a movie with many kids but unfortunately for us back then it wasn't free and it wasn't a huge screen either, we had to watch at someone's living room with a small tv and the first one we had there was betamax :D
costs 1 Philippine peso which was a lot for us so we just cry ourselves to sleep when we couldn't :D
edit : tell me which channel you hang out on discord and I'll leave you a message there .
My childhood lived in a very quiet neighborhood away from the big city, there we were all believers and religious, we respected the customs of our ancestors, we visited the church of the city, they were moments to be at peace and in family, sharing what there was, with the neighbors, any dispute or resentment was a moment of forgiveness and forgetting everything.
We enjoyed the Christmas dinner, the cider, the pandulce and the budin, we woke up telling and talking about stories about the boy Jesus, our holidays began on December 8 with the armed of the tree and ended on January 8 with the arrival of the Kings.
to be a father respected and transmitted these traditions with my children, I raised it from that animal, now we are just repeating these traditions with my grandchildren.
I loved your traditions. thank you very much dear friend @englishtchrivy for teaching us.
I wish you a wonderful day
thank you for sharing @jlufer sounds much like ours :)
pandulce!!! i think we had this too! ^ ^
Happy Holidays! to you and your family!
Times changing, I suppose the new generation celebrate their x-mas on their phone :) Not sure where you live, but I live in the big city and the big cities never ever get these children walking around singing and all. Not to long ago, with Halloween I was with friends in the northern part of Amsterdam, an old little village. All night long children rang the doorbell to get treats. Well, you must be in such village setting for that; Since I don't get that at my door in the city. Anyways, we have CDs and Spotify and all, so the X-mas singing can come from the speakers. With AI moving up the ladder, at some point in the future it can sound like so natural that it seems to come from the street :) Enjoy X-mas!
hi @edje thank you for sharing!
the kids I'm talking about are from and in my country :)
here, it's too quiet but you're right .. it must be the technology :)
hmm.. sounds like there are more Christmas noise there :)
Happy Holidays!
Happy cristmas....keep enjoy with your family and friends...
best of luck..
@resteem
hi @englishtchrivy
nice story,very good writing,i like this blog
Marry christmas
That's pretty cool to know, that's will be great this and marry christmas...
i will always support you man!!!