Paskong Pinas

I’ve been using the word Pinoy as a world-wise street-smart x-creature of Philippine-descent who walks the planet as if it was his or hers, but the language is inextricably gender-identified and Pinoy is definitely masculine, as Pinay, an operational term, is feminine.

I am shifting to Pinas, of feminine gender form but which is normally rendered with an apostrophe before the “P”; in my case I will skip the apostrophe to designate both genders, either female or male.  Pinas also points to geography of origin and I will leave it at that, too.

I used the old metaphor of the City of Lights, gay Paree, a fun-loving city appropriate for the lightness of being, until I noticed that the lights in my neighbors’ windows were blinking a good week before Thanksgiving. How did the tradition of blinking lights enter into Pinas’ DNA? JP building in Garapan had Santa Claus glitter and my apartment complex’ entrance was sporting lit plastic fir trees at the lighted entrance driveway. It turns out that on both places, they showed the Pinas touch on Christmas, the tradition of lighted parol (lantern) that grace homes at Pasko/Påsgua on island. Two windows across my complex started the flashing glares turning to 12 windows by the end of November.

Ang pasko ay sumapit …Of course, the predominant Pinas units tended to be lit more than the spattering of Hangul, Nihongo, Zhongguoren, the haole and the Chamorros from off island whose members attend nearby NMC. Clearly, Pinas has an edge on the lighted parol tradition.

“Big deal,” one can be dismissive, but the lights are resplendent and families evidently do not spare the expense on colored bulbs. In the spirit of CUC advising folks to go ahead and purchase their lights as power supply was going to be total by Christmas, it appears that Pinas had taken the dare and the promise seriously. The employees at JP Center and the residents of Finasisu Terraces, predominantly Pinas, assured the place the glitz of lights.

The radio station plays tannenbaum and we got northern Europe celebrating Christmas in my backyard. We got the Spanish tradition of lights, of Scandinavian-Nordic origin when the sun goes to sleep a month of the year making the “lights” a necessity at night. The tannenbaum is alpine fir tree that stays green and fresh through the cold winter in the snow and so in the dead of winter, light is bright and the tree stays green.

Edelweiss, the fragrant above-the-tree-line Alpine flower, white and green, is a symbol of dedication and compassion, the hopefulness and care-filled-ness of life for those who choose to live it that way. Of course, there are many other options, but Christmas is a religious season of hope, however one slices it (never mind the equity-measured and advantage sought-after gift-giving practices). The parol among my neighbors and the green fir Christmas trees at our complex entrance—brightness in normally gloomy and wilted winter of Scandinavia—are signs that life can be lived and celebrated in the tropics all year round.  Celebrate!

Other than the military live-fire proposal on Tinian, the dropping of incendiary bombs on Pagan that may be likened to the fate of old decimated Farallon de Medinilla targeted by fly-bys that sent shivers to Chamorro-Carolinian nerves, tremors to the heart of Cinta Kaipat, et al, the NMI is living up to what it paid for: as a strategic military location for Uncle Sam’s command. That the real estate comes cheap is hardly surprising; that the Pentagon hardliners will rule the islands’ future is not even in question.

The lights and the tannenbaum might have originated in Europe, and the song Edelweiss popular to the Sound of Music hum, but Pinas appropriated the year-round sunlight and fir evergreen foliage to the tropical island homes in Pea Eye and the CNMI, the parol for lights and the tannenbaum in the islands’ own abundant growth of fire and flame trees.

Marianas dealt with Spain but each party kept its distance until a liberal Cortez set rigid relations free. Micronesia from Palau to the Marshalls did sing the “tannenbaum» for a short while, but the babe in the manger is the revered Santo Niño of popular piety. The season is more than just a religious celebration.  As a symbol of hope, it crept into the islands’ DNA.

Sleds slide on snow ringing sleigh bells through the cold night in tropical imagination. The images in stores are of Santa and his reindeers, and though many have yet to see snow, they sing of getting reindeers learning how to fly.

It is the light that battle darkness and prevails, and tannenbaum that stands out of the cold that makes tropical Saipan’s Christmas a veritable symbol of hope.
Maligayang Pasko sa imong tanan, gagayyem!  That covers most of Pinas on island save the Kapampangan in D’Elegance.  Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad, Sheng Dan Kuai Le, Sung Tan Chuk Ha, Mele Kalikimaka, Ameseighil ubwutiiwel, Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom, Merīkurisumasu, and Felis Påsgua.