Is it early to say, “Make the best Christmas ever?”
“Make the best Christmas ever!” These words were once uttered by Joey Concepcion, and at the time these were said, he made my day.
The moment ABS-CBN went off the air, the only tv talk show that I would not miss from Monday to Friday is Cito Beltran’s program of (cignal) tv 8 from 8 to 9 in the morning. It may also be because Cito Beltran was once at ANC. He is a columnist of Philstar and he is also with One News at tv1. He is the son of Louie Beltran of Philstar with the likes of Max Soliven, and Teodoro Benigno. There was a time when I had The Star and the Inquirer everyday. But now, not even one is delivered to my home since national dailies are no longer available due to our present air transportation problem brought about by the Covid pandemic.
You will agree with me when I am sharing with you my addiction to The Agenda, if you would switch on to cignal tv on channel 8.
And by the way, there was still another Beltran – Art Beltran. When they passed on, I stopped viewing television for a while until????
Last Monday Joey Concepcion was the guest in the program The Agenda with Cito Beltran. What Joey Concepcion said in Cito Beltran’s program made my day. Yes, “Let’s make this Christmas the best Christmas ever.”
As a backgrounder, Joey Concepcion, is the son of JoeCon of Namfrel (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Election – an election watchdog in the Philippines) during the pre and post martial law era and the chair of the food conglomerate republic flour mills together with his twin brother Raul Concepcion. Joey is presently the presidential adviser for entrepreneurship in the Duterte administration. He is also the founder of Go Negosyo and presently the CEO of the family controlled Corporation, Republic Flour Mills (RFM).
As a member of IATF, Joey is an advocate of opening our doors for the economy. RFM has not stopped operation especially now that Christmas is near. With or without Covid, it’s the time of the year when families come together in celebration of the birth of Jesus, much more so that we are being locked down. And we have been staying in this condition for 5 months now.
Personally, I’m looking forward to the celebration of Christmas, the way my Lola Danday prepared this season in my younger days immediately after world war two. I remember that she would start her preparation for Christmas starting November of each year. She would then clean the empty Alpine evaporated milk cans. She would use these empty cans for potting the corn and rice seeds as hedges for her Belen. She didn’t mind the Christmas tree. Her focus was on the Belen. She had her collection of karnero ug baka-baka from Dauis to complete her Belen. During our time, the Wednesdays in the months of November and December were welcomed days as these were the days when the karnero ug baka-baka were sold in abundance in the market. And all these were made, not in plastic materials, but through the paper mache art – a craft which was mastered by the people from Dauis. Are the Dauisanons still doing these now?
As far as my town (Baclayon) is concerened, food preparation for Christms was not so much of a problem because of the leftovers from the December 8 fiesta celebration in honor of the Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Chicharon was one of the favorite leftovers. Unya, importante pud nga naa gyu’y maruyang ubi. Akong mahinumduman nga dili gyud ipamaruya kadniadto ang ubi nga kinampay. Para ra gyud na sa ube jam kon dunay okasyon.
Adtong unang panahon, daghan pa gyud ang ubing mapanglin kay ang nagbantay sa yuta magkugi pa man ug panguma. Naay violet nga ubi nga dili humot lung-agon pero lamian kung ituslob sa manteka sa baboy unya butangan ug tuyo ug dili asin.
We were already happy with those kinds of food. We didn’t have junk foods. We had camote, bananas, and apale. We claimed these as our “comfort food”. Today, ubi is already expensive because thare is scarcity of the crop. The law of supply and demand is really playing a role here. The young nowadays are not anymore attuned to farming as they would rather be in the offices or other kinds of jobs, instead of tilling the soil.
However, with Covid coming into the picture, agriculture seems to be in the offing, again. Would it be okay to say “Thanks to Covid?” Indeed, people are now realizing the treasures we can have in farming.
How I wish I could celebrate the kind of Christmas in my Youth come December. How I wish I could celebrate that kind of Christmas with my children and grandchildren. How I wish I could witness the shows which we called “sali” where the pastores would dance in front of the Belen and where the manaygonay would entertain us to their hearts’ content. How I I wish I could see again the lamp (petromax) shining brightly in the dark night – the lamp that seems to focus its brilliance on the dancers of the pastores.
How I wish to make the best Christmas ever – this December!
How I wish!