My Family Traditions

            Every family has its own traditions, which are honored and respected over the generations. My family also has a number of practices that are very meaningful, beautiful and interesting. Some of the traditions that we follow from generation to generation are eating dinner together,"pagmamano",attending Sunday mass,Christmas celebration, Birthday celebration of our family members and holy week celebration.

      Filipinos have a very regular eating schedule: morning, mid-morning, lunch, afternoon (merienda) and dinner. As a Filipino we can't go a day without including rice in our meals. We love plain rice matched with salted fish, chicken and meat. Our family always have the time to eat dinner together because of how busy our parents in their work it is the only time we have our bonding.

            Pagmamano is a Filipino custom that has survived the times and foreign influences. This is the practice of respect by asking for an elder’s hand and touch one’s forehead while bowing. One usually asks by saying “Mano po” (Literally, “your hands please”). In return, the elder blesses the person. In our family when we arrived at home we always "mano" our parents right hand to show respect to them.

          Filipinos has a habit of going to church every Sunday and often praying. It reflects that Filipinos have a deep faith and belief when it comes to religion. In our family, during Sundays early in the morning, at 6 o'clock specifically, we will go to church to have our Sunday mass.

        As soon as December sets in, everyone in the Philippines, young and old alike are busy preparing for the biggest religious activity on December 25. Houses are cleaned, painted and decorated with new colorful curtains, Christmas decorations and multicolored lights.Lanterns of different Christmas tree and a Belen are placed in the living rooms of the most homes. 

            Our family attended the nine-day masses or Misa de Gallo which is celebrated at dawn when the cock starts to crow begin on December.In spite of the fact that we need to wake up as early as three o'clock in the morning . As we walk to the church, we always notice the streets lined with small stores selling puto, bibingka and puto bumbong. 

           The climax of this Christmas celebration is a midnight mass on Christmas eve, December 24. On Christmas day we dressed in our best attires and visit our ninongs, ninangs, relatives and friends. We kiss the hands of our elders as a sign of respect. In return the some elders give us money,gifts or native delicacies. Christmas is for everyone and at no other time of the year is the family more complete.

           We celebrate the birthday of our family member  every year. We buy cakes and decorate it with lettering and his or her age is present. The birthday celebrant will usually make a silent wish and attempt to blow out the candles in one breath; if successful, a tradition holds that the wish will be granted.The wish must be kept secret or it won't "come true". Presents are bestowed on the birthday celebrant by the guests appropriate to her/his age. 

        The Lenten season is as significant to the Filipinos as Christmas. Christian Filipinos commemorate the passion and death of Jesus Christ with as much sincerity and seriousness as His birth.On Ash Wednesday,we go to church were a sign of the cross is imprinted with ashes on the forehead of every season. Chanting of the Pasyon (Christ's suffering before His death) in the native tongue of the region begins on Holy Week and is held at certain hours of the night. On Holy Thursday, the chanting goes on the whole day and night until the following morning. By Good Friday, the whole town is deep in meditation on the passion and death of Christ on the Cross. In Church one can observe individuals as well as families praying the Stations of the Cross. 

    In Good Friday we had our fasting and penance to atone for our sins. A penance quite common in the barrios is for a penitent to cover his face with a black cloth and walk down the streets beating his back with thin bamboo sticks until blood oozes out of his wounds. In afternoon we,the devotees flock to church for sermon on the Seven Last Words of Jesus as he hung on the cross.Easter Sunday is a memorable day. We wake up early for the salubong, a re-enactment of the Risen Lord's meeting with His Mother at dawn.