Holiday spirit
The crowds in the malls may be leaner, the gifts less expensive and the prices of goods higher, but, global recession or not, Christmas remains the happiest season for most Filipinos.
This is the time of the year when pessimists, skeptics and all kinds of people who find joy in making life difficult for others take a breather and grudgingly go with the mood of the community.
With Dec. 25 and New Year’s Day falling on a Thursday — in the process “sandwiching” the succeeding Friday between a holiday and a weekend — an 11-day holiday is in the offing.
For those with relatives and friends in the provinces or elsewhere who have no professional commitments to tie them down, it’s an opportunity to visit and rekindle ties.
If there are financial constraints for such activities, the layover can be used for rest and relaxation in the company of the people who matter most in their lives.
It will be business as usual, however, for government personnel tasked to maintain peace and order, or keep vital public service facilities going while the rest of the nation enjoy the holiday.
The same thing goes for employees of private companies who have to do maintenance work, close the financial books or attend to activities that can best be done when the offices are empty.
Holiday feeling
In most business capitals of the world, if Christmas Day and the following day fall on working days, the staff is usually given the day off on the 25th to enable them to celebrate it, depending on their personal beliefs.
But they have to report for work the next day unless they earlier asked and were given leave to extend their vacation.
Otherwise, the rest of the staff trek back to work so it’s not unusual for office buildings to be bursting with activity right after Christmas Day.
For Filipinos, however, Christmas is not only Dec. 25; it includes the succeeding days up to New Year’s Day. For the hopelessly sentimental, that sometimes extends to Jan. 6 or what used to be celebrated as Three Kings Day.
During that period, most Filipinos are in a celebratory (read: lazy) mood that will not tolerate interruption except for very good reasons.
Unless it involves emergency work or a promise of extra benefits, any businessman who disrupts that state of partial hibernation by calling his employees back to work risks getting their silent ire.
Workaholic
I once worked on a loan agreement involving a syndicate of banks based in New York and Tokyo that required discussions up to close to the holidays.
In the evening of Dec. 23, I sent an email to the banks, informing them of my position on some items of the loan. I ended my letter with a Christmas greeting and told them I looked forward to hearing from them, if possible, by Dec. 27.
Boy, did I get a quick reply to my email. The New York bankers said they planned to work up to 4 p.m. on Dec. 24, take a break on Christmas Day, and go back to work on the 26th.
They even gave me their home numbers in case I wanted to talk to them about the loan on Christmas Day! Talk of workaholic or obsessive compulsive people.
With characteristic politeness, the Japanese bankers wrote that they will be available for discussions everyday until Dec. 30 when they break off for the yearend celebration.
Their response did not surprise me, after all Christmas is not part of their culture or religion.
I replied “thanks but no thanks,” the loan can wait while I enjoy the holiday season, Filipino style.
Tradition
The length of our Christmas celebration and the amount of effort put into it has been a source of amusement and amazement by some foreigners.
For Asians who have their own share of colorful traditional activities, the season, except for the motif, strikes close to home. It’s no big deal.
Whenever I hear disparaging remarks from Westerners about the time and money “wasted” during this period, I am quick to point out that they’re small compared to what Europeans do in August every year.
During that month, which is summer by their standards, they go on vacation to every available beach or resort in the continent. Business and government offices are practically on a standstill.
It’s the worst time of the year to do business in Europe because members of the skeletal force that remains to put a semblance of normalcy in operations are either in a bad mood for being left behind or have their minds elsewhere than their work.
Despite the month-long break, however, the rest of the world has learned to accept and adjust to the August habit of the Europeans.
During the celebration of the Lunar Year, life goes on a slow mode for at least two weeks in China and other countries with strong ethnic Chinese presence.
The cities are emptied of people who, in keeping with tradition, go to their ancestral homes to visit their relatives.
Neither industrialization nor globalization has prevented the Chinese and their ethnic relations in other parts of Asia from observing this annual ritual. And the rest of the world has and continues to respect it.
Regardless of what others may say, the Christmas season is ours to enjoy.
Happy Holidays!
* * *
For feedback, please write to rpalabrica@inquirer.com.ph.
