Christmas in a Barrio.

In the tiny town where my father grew up - up north in a province called Nueva Ecja - the houses that lined the street leading to the main Church were built of wood and nipas.

The barrio used to be called Papaya until 1957,  is now known as General Tinio. A first class municipality, it boasts of a population of 42,634 people.

The town is at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountain, adjoining the Fort Magsaysay Army Reservation on the east side.

Nipa comes from the palm family of plants, and because it is the major component of the house, the house built out of it had been called a Nipa Hut.  It is a type of  stilt house indigenous to most of the lowland cultures of the Philippines.


But these houses soon disappeared as families in our barrio slowly upgraded into modern structures built of cement and steel. Then the boom years quickly happened as residents found work overseas, and today, the houses leading up to the main church are big, grandiose and affluent.

What about the church?

The church which was located in the Town Plaza and where we attended mass during Christmas and town fiestas has become the second church. It is called Sto. Cristo. 

Sto. Cristo Church, where burial masses are now held

In the mid-90's,  the Holy Cross Church was built, farther from the center of politics (the Municipal Hall) and still farther from the nexus of trade (the local wet market). The new church is fondly called "simbahang bago," (new church) by the locals.

Holy Cross Church, bigger and newer church in General Tinio, Nueva Ecija

Interior of the Holy Cross Church

The Sto. Cristo Church and the Holy Cross Church are under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cabanatuan.

La Immaculada Concepcion.

La Immaculada Concepcion of Pasig

Yesterday, December 8th, the Catholic faithful commemorated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is one of only three official Holidays of Obligation celebrated by the Catholics in the Philippines, the other two being Christmas Day and the Solemnity of Mary on January 1st.

I remember a story my mother told us when we were young, which revolved around this particular feast.

On December 8, 1941, my mother and my father, her two sisters, her parents and brother in law were in the house of a first cousin and they were happily dining with other relatives and friends. It was the town fiesta in Pasig, a town (now a City) east of Manila.

The center of the Fiesta in Pasig is the Pasig Cathedral which is called the Immaculada Concepcion, built by the Augustinians on July 2, 1573, some fifty one years after the Philippine Islands became Christians by virtue of the coming of the Spaniards in 1521.

The Pasig Cathedral built in 1573

Initially, the Parish was consecrated to the Visitation of Our Lady but in April 25, 1587, was changed to the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the Augustinians during that time. 

On August 21, 2003, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pasig was inaugurated and the Parish was elevated into the status of a Cathedral.

On that fateful day in 1941, the town of Pasig was, like in the past many years, focused on the day's festivities - mass, procession, parades, games, beauty pageant, eating, drinking and merrymaking. The Pasig fiesta was one of the grandest in the the province of Rizal, after all.

My mother said, " biglang nagkagulo at nagsigawan ang mga tao, giyera na, giyera na." (the people started to become restless and started shouting, " it's wartime, it's wartime"). Yes, it was the start of World War II, because the Japanese Imperial Army attacked without provocation the United States Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. ( The attack occured on Dec. 7 Hawaii- time and Dec 8 in Japan and the Philippines). The Philippines, being under the Commonwealth of the United States, was dragged into the destructive war.

US and Filipino soldiers during WW II in Manila

My grandfather and countless relatives and friends of my parents suffered and/or died during this War.

That was 73 years ago. My mother and most of the relatives who celebrated that 1941 Fiesta with her are all gone. But everytime the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated, the story as told by my mother comes to mind.

Discipleship