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Hilda Baybay, second from left with her family, begins celebrating Christmas in September.Supplied
By the time Christmas Day arrives, Hilda Baybay will have been celebrating the holiday in one way or another for nearly four months.
Every year, her tree goes up on Sept. 1. In October, she gives the counterfeit conifer a spooky makeover befitting the Halloween vibe of her East Vancouver neighbourhood. Then, at dawn on Nov. 1, Christmas returns.
Her daughter, Hilani Baybay Daniel, waits until after Nov. 11 to put up her tree and decorate the one-bedroom place in the city that she shares with her husband, a South Asian man who is an ardent observer of Remembrance Day.
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Ms. Baybay’s Christmas tree is decorated for Halloween in October.Hilda Baybay/Supplied
The mother-daughter duo are among the roughly 960,000 Filipino Canadians in the country, many of whom follow the Philippine tradition of starting Christmas celebrations in September and continuing them throughout the “ber” months of October, November and December.
The festivities crescendo with Noche Buena, on Christmas Eve, which is when they have a late-night dinner and open most of their presents. Trees are often kept up until Three Kings Day, in the new year.
Spanish colonizers pushed Christianity and Christmas on the tropical archipelago more than 300 years ago and, nowadays, the months leading up to the big holiday are spent stocking up on gifts, beautifying neighbourhoods with festive crafts, having kids carol for cash, lighting off small fireworks, feasting with family and going to church.
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Two years ago, Mariah Carey, the pop star whose “All I Want for Christmas” becomes omnipresent throughout much of North America in December, shouted out this festive phenomenon.
She told her followers in a social media post “not yet!” when informed there was a massive jump in streams of her seasonal hit on Sept. 1, before cheekily saying she would allow it for her Filipino fans.
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Ms. Baybay’s mother, Mendy Ramos, with a traditional Filipino holiday feast in 2016.Hilda Baybay/Supplied
Whereas older members of the Filipino diaspora tamped down their enthusiasm for assembling adornments in order to assimilate into Canadian culture, younger generations are increasingly embracing the much-longer season enjoyed by their relatives across the Pacific, according to Catholic priest Mario Marin, who moved to Edmonton as a teen in 1976 and now lives in the eastern Vancouver suburb of Abbotsford.
Mr. Marin said he usually follows the Canadian calendar and decks the hall of his bachelor pad in December. But, this year, he says, the liturgical advent season began on Nov. 30, so he successfully petitioned his strata council to relax a rule that outlaws balcony decorations before Dec. 1.
Vancouverite Ariane Azul began her Christmas prep in the summertime, so she could buy all the gifts for her two children in the Philippines and pack them into a so-called Balikbayan box. That’s the name given to care packages the Filipino diaspora send to family in their birth country, which is similar to the barrels Caribbean Canadians often ship south at this time of year.
Ms. Azul said her mother, cousin and sons recently received their box and have already opened their presents. She said her compatriots are often more generous than normal during the Christmas season because their incomes, which are well below the typical Canadian minimum wage, are buttressed by large tax refunds and salary bonuses doled out each December.
The Philippine Consul General in Vancouver, Gina Alagon Jamoralin, said Christmas offers her nation the opportunity to celebrate the joys of a life that can often be beset by unforeseen hardships, pointing to the frequent typhoons that buffet the long chain of islands.
“The Philippines is always visited by calamities and natural disasters so the hope for Christmas is something to look forward to and something to be happy about,” said Ms. Alagon Jamoralin, whose busy office began decorating in October.
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Ms. Baybay Daniel, who is the communications director at the Filipino BC community organization, said her family is still grappling with the loss of her 90-year-old grandpa earlier this year. For as long as she can remember, the patriarch would individually hand every person their gift on Noche Buena, when as many as 60 of her relatives in Vancouver would stay up into the wee hours to enjoy each other’s company. Last year, he was too frail to pass out the gifts, but beamed with pride as she helped take over the family tradition.
This year, many people in Ms. Baybay Daniel’s wider community are fighting through intense grief after 11 bystanders were killed in the SUV attack on the Lapu-Lapu Day block party in April.
Ms. Baybay Daniel said her organization, which organizes the festival, put out a Christmas playlist in September for its members, but did not set up any office decorations this fall. She said that’s because Filipino BC didn’t want to transform the office space lent to it by the Vancouver Foundation, to help people process and heal in the aftermath of the devastating attack.
“How can we go into a celebration, but also honour the fact that [there is] grief and there’s still families that are hurting,” she said of the paradox of this Christmas season.
