Tarlac City, Tarlac,
Philippines
6 December 2009
We were having a discussion with a member back in September when she mentioned the “Ber” months were here. Not knowing what she was talking about we asked what were the “Ber” months? She looked at us as if we where little children and said “You know September, October, November and December”. These are the months the Philippines celebrate the Christmas holidays. Yes, they start as early as September singing Christmas carols. While attending a missionary district meeting in September we sang a carol as one of our songs. To us it was a bit early.
As we paid more attention we noticed businesses started putting up Christmas decorations and trees as part of their way of doing business. Even the local municipalities have their displays out and lit in October. Other cities have waited until December to open their displays of Christmas. Many houses are also putting up lights for the season.
The Philippines is a Christian country so Christ’s birth is the theme of almost all their community displays. As we drive for our assignments we can see a whole spectrum of displays from the most humble – a little manger with small figures set alongside the country road, to big elaborate sets that are hugh and well lighted. No matter how it is presented it shows the enthusiasm each community has for this time of year.
The weather does not let us relate to the Christmas season that we remember from back home because it is so warm. We have no snow, no ice on the roads, do not have to wear coats or gloves or hats to keep our ears warm – we only wear short sleeved shirts, sun glasses and keep the A/C turned on in the car and house.
In our house here in Tarlac we will put up a little table top Christmas tree (we inherited from the previous missionaries) for our personal celebration and enjoy our Christmas time together here in this beautiful country.
Elder NB & Sister MB
4 comments:
That's nice they participate in the festivities. I'm glad you will have a little tree..I was wondering about that. Merry Christmas
We are having our Brrrr months right now. Three days of snow, heavy, wet snow. Unless you have 4 wheel drive you cannot drive out of our culdesac.I grew up in Phoenix and there was no snow. We still managed to have a wonderful Christmas.
I would love to send you some Christmas snow from our front yard! We have lots of extra. Merry Christmas Costleys...we love missionarys...we miss you...but we love missionarys.
Thanks for the blog news too.
How wonderful to see nativities everywhere! Are you going to buy any while you're there? As for snow, another missionary couple said that they lined up people in 2 lines and gave them each a piece of paper to make a "snowball", probably the only one they've ever seen, and throw them at each other from a distance. Thanks for sharing!
I am going to miss that beautiful nativity scene and some of the other fun sights around Tarlac. The Ber months are the way to celebrate Christmas! We will be so happy to have you two home before the next Ber months come around! Love you!!
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