We have the longest Christmas in the World

So runs a commercial here on Philippine TV.  But it is actually true!!

I am just about to finish Simbang gabi, the traditional Filipino religious custom of celebrating 9 masses before Christmas.  The parish priest talked me into going.  The masses started on Monday Dec 15th.  Fr Rico said to me I had a choice of 2 masses, one at 4.00 in the morning, one at 8.00 in the evening.  

Not surprising I opted for the evening 8 o'clock!!

So I turned up on the Monday evening, and to my surprise, the priest was wearing white not purple and we sang the Gloria.  I couldn't work out what mass he was saying.

By the next day, I had realised he was anticiapting the mass for the following day.  But we were definitely in white and singing the Gloria.

On seeing Fr Rico in the shopping mall, I asked about this and apparently, only here in the Philippines, for the special designated Simbang gabi masses (they are at a different time to "normal" weekday masses), they are regarded as Christmas masses, white is the colour and the Gloria is to be sung, this according to the local Ordo.  Except (oddly enough) the mass on Saturday night, which was the 4th Sunday of Advent Mass, in purple - no Gloria.  (So fulfilled Sunday obligation)

This tradition goes back almost 500 years.  It seems strange (to me) to have Christmas masses in Advent, with the readings from 17th to 24th December masses, but Christmas preface etc.etc, interspersed with Advent masses at normal time, but mostly people here concentrate on the Simbang gabi masses rather than any others, so I guess it doesn't phase them.

The church was packed to capacity and more for the first couple of masses.  Difficult to find a seat.  After that numbers went down a bit, but still the church is full.  The whole town of Cavinti seems to turn out.

The last couple of days we have had mass in the 2 village churches, Sunday afternoon in West Talaongan, yesterday in East Talaongan, so these were added in as designated Simbang gabi masses too.  After the mass everyone goes round wishing everyone else a Happy Christmas.  Part of this is due to the fact that the parish church is a long way away and for many people they simply cannot get there.  There is nothing like a bus service.  there are jeepneys, but on Christmas day I suspect they will be conspicuous by their absence, so the village mass is their one and only Christmas mass.

By the way, Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Termites 3

For those of you wondering how our little white ant friends are doing:.......

The exterminators came back last week.  Of the 8 or so cylinders placed around the perimeter of the house only one had termites in it.  And they had really enjoyed the eucalyptus wood panels.  So that cylinder was packed with the cellulose bait.  The box attached to our skirting board was empty, the greedy little termites had eaten all the bait, so it was refilled.  The box by the bahay cubo was untouched , because they had sprayed that cubo as it had other pests as well and that had dealt with the termites there.

So now they should be feeling their mandibles getting soft, then their exoskeletons and then termites terminated!!

Serendipity

There are two routes from here to Manila.  Okay, in order to fully appreciate this you have to know that Manila lies to the north west of us and in between us and Manila lies Laguna de Bay, an enormous inland sea.  So basically to get to Manila you have to go round Laguna de Bay.

Route 1, favoured by most Filipinos, involves driving from here to Calamba allong the south shore of Laguna then onto the Southern Luzon Expressway (known as SLEX).  SLEX is being upgraded, and hence is in turmoil, so it is not a fast road yet, and as for the road from here to Calamba it goes through lots of towns and one's fastest speed is frequently that of the tricycles, about 15 m.p.h!!

But if you are going to the southeren part of Manila, the airport for example, or Alabang where we do our European shopping, you really have no choice.

Route 2 is to travel via Antipolo, along the eastern and northern shores of Laguna and that brings you to north Manila, Quezon City as it is known.  Although no expressway is involved, the road is good, not that heavily trafficed and so it is a fastish route.  Also the scenery is much nicer, less towns more mountains.

On the weekend of the funeral, see previous blog, we travelled up to Moncarda by Route 1 as it was 11 p.m. and by then all good Filipnos (and probably the bad ones too) are tucked up in bed and the roads everywhere are almost empty.

Coming back on a Monday afternoon, I decided we would go the Antipolo way, Route 2.  Anyway we made a wrong turn or didn't make a turn we should have, and instead of a 90 minute drive we were driving for over a couple of hours.  But we didn't realise we had gone wrong because we were driving in nthe most spectacular scenery I have ever seen here in the Philippines.  Mountains and valleys, a really beautiful road.  We only realsised we had gone wrong when our road turned into a goat track!  Then was then a lot of backtracking and saking before we found the road we should have been on!

Now I know that road is there, I will go back, it is not that far from here, with camera and try to take some pictures and post them here.  Probably in the New Year.

A Life that never was

We have had a sad couple of days.  One of Grace's sisters was pregnant and nearly due.

Unfortunately the baby was stillborn on Sunday.  So we all drove up to Moncada, where her sister lives for the burial which took place on Monday.

To me it was very strange.  The baby was buried , in the good old English phrase, without benefit of clergy.  I don't know why.  The father is catholic, mother methodist but there never semed any idea of getting the local priest or methodist minister to come.  On asking Grace she didn't seem to show any surprise at this.

I am told they said the rosary before the burial procession set out.  A group of about a dozen people carrying the small decorated coffin walked the couple of miles to the cemetary.  

Don't imagine a cemetary like an English churchyard - this is nothing like that.  The tradition here is for above ground tombs, mostly made of hollow blocks and cement.  In this cemetary the graves are adjoing each other with virtually no space between them.  So to get from the outside of the cemetary to anywhere inside you actually have to walk on the tombs themselves.  Somewhere between 2 of these tombs enough space had been found to dig  a small hole for the baby's coffin.  The coffin was placed on an adjacent tomb, the lid taken off for a final look at her and then placed in the hole and covered with earth.

Yes, I know that is essentially what a burial is, but this is the very first time I have been to one without some form of minister present to say the "official" words.  I felt desperately sad and that something important was missing.

Pray for the repose of the soul of Bless Angela Pascua.

Memoirs

No, not mine!!

I have recently been reading the memoirs of Hans Kung.

I have finished Volume 1 and am reading Vol 2 at the moment.

They are fascinating.  The first volume paints an intriguing picture of the church before and during Vatican 2.  Following all the twists and turns and meeting the people involved is interesting in itself but Kung goes much further.  He is also tracing the history of his own theology and to do that, he briefly summarises his theological arguments for his major works.  I have always admired his work and this behind the scenes insight I find gives a powerful extra dimension to the original books.

Volume 2 is very different.  Writtem after Ratzinger becomes Pope, the early part concentrates as much on Ratzinger as it does on Kung himself.  Not surprisingly as they were both professors together in the same university, in fact it was Kung who got Ratzinger into Turbingen.  A critical comparison of Kung's theology and theological appraoch with that of Ratzinger is given.  It makes it easier to see why B16 has taken some of his post papal stances.

Kung denies the charge that Ratzinger has changed, in fact he argues strongly that Ratzinger has not changed, that he still maintains the viewpoint inculcated in him as a Bavarian Catholic.  On the other hand, Kung says that he, Kung has changed, influenced by his observations, his researches and his insights, he has moved from a neo-scholastic training to a historo-critical exegesis position.  I can't do it justice here, but for anyone wanting to understand the theological arguments and crises of the last 50 years which so shape the church today, these 2 books are an excellent read.

Update on the Termites

I am getting behind on these blogs!!

The termite guys came almost 2 weeks ago, that is how behind I am!!

They placed 8 cylinders in the ground all around the house.   Each cylinder contains eucalyptuswood strips  and the idea is that when the team returns they will see which cylinders have been attacked.  Those attacked cylinders then get filled by this special cellulose bait.  Meanwhile the 2 places they observed direct termite activity, skirting board by the front door and a bench in our "bahay kubo", (a thatch covered seating area  some 20 yards from the house), were fitted with a closed box (small holes for termites only, filled with the bait.

Apparently eating the bait and taking it back to the nest for all other termites in the nest to eat, has the result of making their mandibles soft, then they can no longer attack wood, only eat the bait.  Finally the bait turns their entire exoskeletons soft and they die.  (No I dont feel guilty)

While the team were here they found 2 above ground termite nests which they destroyed.  They opened up the mound and then one guy reached in and pulled masses and masses of the little white perishers  and eggs out until finally he found the core: this is a hard mud construction about six inches by four by two.  Chopping that open we find the king , a black termite about half an inch long and the queen, a hideous worm like creature, two inches long and half an inch in diameter, greyish white, she lays egs, about 500 a day.  Then there was general spraying of the area to destroy them all.

Unfortunately there are 9 different species of termites in the Philippines and only 1 builds a mound.  The other 8 have underground nests you cannt easily find.  Hence the bait method.  And they can travel up to 50 metres in search of food.

I'll keep you posted after the team return!!