Monday, December 14, 2009

it's Christmas-time in the city

Beginning December 1st, and all through the month of December, carolers visit homes throughout the Philippines. Some groups do it just for fun - young people strolling along the street in the evening, singing carol after carol together. Others play instruments along with the singing.

Still others do it in hopes of reward.

These three boys (like many others before them) came to our gate last night. They sang the usual three songs: "Joy to the World" in imperfect English (which is much better than my Cebuano!), followed by a Filipino carol, and finally "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." At the end they will usually yell out "Advance Merry Chreestmas!!" repeatedly, hoping for us to acknowledge them and reward them with a treat.


These were two other boys who came last night. I asked if I could video tape them, and they were delighted to comply. I'm sorry that the picture is so dark.



And here's Michael cutting apart packages of peanuts in preparation to hand out to future carolers!





2 comments:

Rosalie said...

Thanks for sharing this. I appreciate how often you are posting on your blog, and also that you are sharing so many pictures. It's really helping to give a good idea of what life is like for you there. Love you all. God bless you in this season as we celebrate the greatest gift of all time.

us5 said...

Thanks for taking time to visit our blog, Rosalie, and for commenting. That encourages us to keep on!