Christmas Carols in the Tropics

I mentioned in a previous blog how Christmas is big deal in the Philippines.  As a nation, they start celebrating Christmas in September.  The celebrations carry on until early January in various forms.

Several weeks ago, as Desiree and I were video chatting, she said: “Ina is excited about being able to sing Christmas carols.  She and her friends have been practicing songs, but they can’t sing them until the sixteenth of December.”

Two things:

1.  Ina (Shanaia) is Desiree’s nine-year-old daughter.

2.  I never thought to ask why Ina could not sing Christmas carols until the sixteenth.

The other night, Desiree mentioned that Ina and several of her friends had been going door to door on the street where they live singing Christmas carols.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, “It’s past the sixteenth.”

“Yep.  And they can only do their singing until the twenty-fourth.”

One thing:

1.  I never thought to ask why Ina needed to stop singing on the twenty-fourth.

Desiree and I chatted a bit more before the subject of the girls singing carols arose again.  That’s when she mentioned something about Ina being pleased with the money she made singing carols.

“Wait,” I said.  Lights were coming on in the empty rooms of my brain.  “The kids make money singing carols?”

“Yep.  Most people will give them a little money when the girls sing at their door.”

“Oh…that explains why they have to wait until the sixteenth and stop on the twenty-fourth.”

“Yep.”

“I told her, if they go to the same places too many times, the people may not give them money.”

“So…it’s like a tradition.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll be darned.  I learned something.  Good for Ina.”

I am, as the saying goes, a little slow on the draw.  But I get it now.  I rather like the idea of kids running about door to door in the tropics singing Jingle Bells.  If giving them loose change promotes that—no problem. 

—Mitchell Hegman