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Christmas Eve
I walked to the Catholic church around the corner from our house and watched people participate in the traditional Christmas Eve mass. The streets and entire parking lot of the church were packed with people and even though they could not see the priest or the inside of the church, loudspeakers enabled them to take part. Most houses still displayed the traditional colored star, made from a wooden frame and colored cardboard or paper. Young kids still went from house to house, singing Christmas carols. In nearly seven years, nothing had changed that much. Week 3 The highlight of the week was my cousin's wedding on National Heroes Day, December 30. It turned out to be one of those grand, Spanish-style weddings that Filipinos like to have. Aside from me, an aunt from Boston and another aunt and her family from San Francisco flew home for the occasion. The bride's dress was an original creation by one of the nation's top fashion designers - the cloth was made from pineapple thread and weighed down with pearls. I had forgotten how these weddings were like and I found out soon enough that I was in for some kind of a refresher. The church where the wedding was held was in one of the oldest Spanish churches in Manila. (The Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than 300 years, with a good portion of us Filipinos having descended from full-blooded Spaniards.) It was also a day when a lot of people chose to be married, it seemed like, since they were churning out weddings in that church assembly-line style. The next wedding entourage would be sitting and watching in the back, ready to march in as soon as the couple from the previous wedding walked out the door. We all had a typical Philippine New Year's Eve party at my cousin's house. Filipinos are big on noise, fireworks and a feast every New Year's Eve. I'd nearly forgotten how thick and black the air could get from the fireworks and explosives. We all walked around with handkerchiefs tied around the lower halves of our faces to prevent us from inhaling too much smoke. I thought we looked like a bunch of bandits celebrating the robbing of a bank. The next morning, we went on a four-hour drive to a beach close to the abandoned American naval base of Subic. On the way there, we saw a good part of the destruction caused by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo - houses buried halfway in lahar, rivers turned into mudflows, tops of nearby mountains almost white with volcanic ash. That evening, we all lay around on the beach cooking food over an outdoor fire, just talking, and catching up on each other's lives. Early the next day, two of my cousins and I waited for the tide to recede and walked over a massive reef, exploring the little nooks and crannies buried in shallow sea water. |
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The Bride Bride and Groom  Exploring the coral reef  Three mermaids headed out to sea (yeah, right)  Camping out on the beach  Celebrating the New Year 
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