Colorful Filipino Christmas Tradition: Simbang Gabi

According to rcam.org---the official site of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila in the Philippines, Simbang Gabi (Mass at Dawn) is one of the longest and most popular among the Filipino traditions in the country. It is when Catholic churches across the nation start to open their doors shortly before the break of dawn to welcome the faithful to the Simbang Gabi mass. 

A Filipino Christmas tradition, it is is a series of nine dawn masses, the mass starts as early as 4:00 a.m. It begins on December 16 and ends on the midnight of the 24th of December.

After hearing Mass, Filipino families partake of traditional Philippine Christmastime delicacies, either during breakfast at home or immediately outside the church, where they are sold. Vendors offer a wealth of native delicacies, including bibingka (rice flour and egg based cake, cooked using coals on top of and under the pastry), puto bumbong (a purple sticky rice delicacy which is steamed in bamboo tubes, with brown sugar and shredded dried coconut meat served as condiments), salabat (hot ginger tea) and tsokolate (thick Spanish cocoa). In some Aglipayan churches, after the mass everybody is invited to partake the "painit" (after mass snacks of delicacies with hot coffee or tsokolate) at the house of the sponsor of the mass.

 BIBINGKA

PUTO-BUMBONG

At home, I was not so far from the church, I think about three steps away from our front door. But shamefully, I completed the series of mass once two years ago. So the day that I'm writing this blog post is the same very day that the Simbang Gabi will begin and I don't think that I can complete it again because I don't have enough stamina while working grave shift at work. Simbang Gabi is one of the most colorful tradition in this country that I always miss, at least partially.

But for me, the true meaning of Simbang Gabi is not about just attending the mass because it was a tradition. It is also about spiritual preparation for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. It does not matter if one  has the stamina to complete the series of mass or not. The amount of blessing does not depend to number of mass you attended but its the disposition of the person who receives the Lord's blessings.