Holiday feast 12/26/2009
 
Yes, I know what Christmas is supposed to be. But if you're Filipino, you know no other way to celebrate Christ's birth except by serving a feast for family and friends.

Look at it this way, then. The holiday fare is really a thanksgiving feast that family and friends can share. It's our way of saying thank you for all the blessings received all year round, and for the grace allowed us in overcoming the obstacles (seemingly insurmountable at that time) that this year brought.

And think of the intent and the preparation that went into this celebration -- the joyous prospect of gathering family members and friends from far and wide under one roof to partake of this feast with goodwill.
And because we're Filipinos, we cannot help but think of celebrations as events where we can share food with each other.

But then again, Homer wrote something about how feasting usually precedes moments of solemnity (and sometimes grimness). In the Odyssey, for example, he narrates how the shipwrecked warriors slaughtered and feasted on the cattle they espied upon reaching shore. Only when they were sated did these same warriors begin to mourn their drowned comrades.

So we, too, scratching our full bellies and sipping tea or coffee to aid our digestion, begin to ponder our fate and faith this season of Christ's birth and of the passing of the year into a new decade of this second millennium.
 


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