TOP 5: Christmas Caroling

(As reminisced in 2006)

One of the biggest "celebrations" in the Philippines is "All Souls' Day," commemorated every 1st of November. We usually waited until it was over before we sang Christmas carols to our neighbors. My brother, my sister, and I would join forces with our best friends in the neighborhood: We would make tambourines out of bottle caps and hangers, drums out of empty cans, and drumsticks out of spoons that we didn't use anymore. Of course, we had this giant jar that held all the money we earned from singing Christmas carols from one house to the next.

Every night, after we've all done our homework and after we've had dinner, we would meet at our usual spot: at the corner of Acacia and Tanguile Streets (Casimiro Village, Las Pinas City, Philippines), where the lamp post and street signs were. There we would plan out our everning round: which streets and houses to cover, who's going with whom to which house, and such. I remember how we used to shove each other, "You go first." "No you go first!" But once somebody starts singing our favorite opening song: "Sa may bahay, ang aming bati / Merry Christmas na malwalhati..." Ah, yeah... it's all down hill from there... At the end of the evening, we would all count the money from the jar and divide it amongst us. We all had a blast!

Unforgettable moments? You bet!

Once, we've been singing for like forever at this one house. And then they said, "Patawad," which basically means, "Sorry, we have nothing to give you; go away." So we started singing, "Tenkyu, tenkyu. Ang babarat ninyo. Tenkyu!" (Thank you. Thank you. What a cheap a**! Thank you!) Before we could run away, they threw a banana peel at us! We all just laughed hysterically all the way to the next house...

Another time, we started singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" at this one house. We actually started from the first day... So by the time we got to the seventh day, the youngest child from the house came out and gave us money. But we were just so determined to finish the entire song. I mean, why stop at the seventh day, right? So we kept on singing, and the child came out again and said, "Here's more money. My mom said please stop singing." After that, we decided that it would be better for us to sing that song starting from the twelfth day...

Oh, memories... (sigh)