December 22, 2022
It's two more days before Christmas. Children are the most excited for sure. How about the adult? Hmm might be yes, might be no. For sure others haven't bought a gift yet and will buy it tomorrow or the next day. Others haven't bought the ingredients of the planned menu yet too. Some Filipinos are buying on late hours, are you one of them? I hope not because it could give stress most of the time.
We are now in the third week of Hive PH Blogging Challenge which is all about Caroling Experiences.
When I heard the word caroling, I can always remember my childhood caroling experiences. Have you experienced caroling back then? I think all of us experienced it.
Caroling Experiences
When December comes, we will start collecting tansan or bottle cap. We will flatten them using a hammer and will make a little hole in the middle so we could put a wire to bind them together.
This bottle cap sounds good when combined together and this will serve as our caroling instrument. For me, this a Tamburin version of Filipino children.
If you are wondering how it looks like. Here it is.
This picture was taken yesterday when two women had a caroling here in our house. I noticed that one of them used tansan. After giving a little amount for them, I tried to ask if I can borrow her tansan for a picture. Fortunately, she let me took a picture of it and I have something to share with you in this blog.
When I was a child we used to sing christmas song in every houses. We used to sing Pasko na naman, Jingle Bells and we wish you a Merry Christmas and lastly a thank you song.
I remember how happy we are when we received 2.00 and even 1.00. But there is one house that gave us 0.25. Instead of singing Thank you, thank you ang babait ninyo, thank you we sang Thank you, thank you ang kuripot ninyo, thank you and then we ran as fast as we can.
When it is so late at night we will decide to stop caroling and we will divide our income. Having some coins when going home will make us so happy.
I also remember that we as a family did caroling. My mother, me and my two younger brother and sister. Our mother encourage us to do caroling so we will have money to buy cocoa and sugar so we could cook champorado at Christmas eve. If ever we will have more, we can also buy loaf bread and peanut butter.
Having those food is enough for us that time and we are so happy if we have it. The next morning, during Christmas, our neighbor will give us spaghetti, macaroni salad and other food and thats made our Christmas more happy.
Caroling this month
For two years, pandemic took us away from the usual caroling. We were locked in the four corners of our house and carollers don't have a chance to do carolling.
As of now, as far as I can remember, there were three groups (two groups of kids and one group of women) who did caroling here. The first group of kids was given bread that time because we were eating bread when they come and we have a lot of it so we decided to share bread instead of coins. The second group of kids, we gave them some coins and I let my son gave it. The third group which is the two women who did caroling yesterday, I just gave some coin.
Here is a picture of them while they were singing. Look at her instrument, that was a tansan or bottle cap (picture shared above).
I used to save some coins in an empty smart dishwashing liquid container as a preparation for carolers. Atleast I have something to give when a group of kids, young or adult will sing a Christmas song outside.
I still have it here. I don't know why only few were caroling these days? Or might be they are just waiting the December 23 to 25 before they will do caroling.
Unlike in the previous years, carolers were so many. There were kids carolers from a neighborhood, a group of friends, a group of students, a group of band, a group of youth in the church, a group of women, a group of men and even a group of senior citizen. Our boarding house was located in the corner and most of the time carolers won't pass without singing in front of our gate. Until such time that I don't have anything to give and I feel ashamed if I can't give any. When that time came, I used to close the door at day time and turn off the lights early at night time. Nakakahiya but that's the reality.
Namamasko po☺️☺️
These days, nauuso na ang online caroling. Can I do it here☺️?
Pasko na naman o kay tulin ng araw
Paskong nagdaan tila ba kung kailan lang
Ngayon ay pasko dapat pasalamatan
Ngayon ay pasko tayo ay mag-awitan
Pasko pasko pasko na namang muli
Tanging araw na ating pinakamimithi
Pasko pasko pasko na namang muli
Ang pag-ibig naghahari
Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh, hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh!
We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Beke nemen
I don't know if this is allowed here. If not please just let me know.
If ever, proceed will go to the children in the neighborhood.
Thank you, thank you, ang babait ninyo, thank you.
We all have needs but try to look around and you'll find more less fortunate than us. So, let us be a vessel of blessings to others even in a very simple way. By doing this, they can feel that God is love and this is the real spirit of Christmas.