Be kinder to our Niñu teams

On Sunday, many of us celebrated Three Kings Day, which for many of us is the end of the Christmas season as well as the end of the Annual Niñu Drives. For nearly three decades, my family has captained a team that has brought the image of the Christ Child to our neighbors’ homes on Christmas and New Year’s Day, along with the Holy Family and Three Kings Sunday in Fina Sisu. As a participant of this activity for much of my life, I have seen how this tiny little gesture that we do for four days out of the year affects people emotionally.

In the homes we visit, we see children’s eyes light up, residents smile, and some of them are even moved to tears at the sight of a baby gazing toward the heavens with a proverbial twinkle in its eye. For a moment, time seems to stop, and the household gathers in prayer, offer their pleas, and have their hope and faith reinforced. To our islands’ Catholics, this gesture truly brings families and friends together during the holidays in peace and harmony. Although most of us welcome the Niñu with open arms, I find myself writing this because of something that for me and for some others is greatly troubling.

Yesterday, a friend of mine mentioned on her social page of her neighbor yelling at members of a Niñu team as they made their way to her home due to their actions disturbing his pets. She wrote about how the person’s demeanor frightened the kids that the group was composed of. She mentioned about how she calmly tried to explain to the person that this is an island tradition, with the neighbor simply saying, and I paraphrase, “It’s never happened on Saipan before.” Of course, after yesterday, he wouldn’t have to worry about it until next year. The incident she talked about was a sad act I was all too familiar with.

It made me remember a few other incidents of people yelling at my Niñu team in years past. One of those moments just so happened to have occurred on Sunday at an apartment complex in my village. This incident involved a guy who started a commotion due to the music being played by our team. He even went so far as to yell at a family member of mine, and even wrote down the team’s license plates because he felt we were disturbing him.

I write this not to chastise those individuals then, or my friend’s neighbor and that apartment tenant now, but to explain why we do what we do as Niñu team members of our churches. Our children and the elderly that our teams encompass are Christmas carolers, using their time to make other people happy. The horns that we honk are a way of letting people know that the Christ Child is in their midst and to prepare their homes for its arrival. You can probably compare it to a town crier informing people of happenings going on; this is how we do it. The loud music we play are our local carols. Just like how carolers will visit homes in the States every Christmas, we do the same using those songs, as a way of both serenading the Child our cars carry, as well as the homes we visit.

Some who aren’t familiar with this custom might think of it as a nuisance, but for many of us who call these islands home, it’s a part of our lives and something they anxiously await. None of these things are done to disturb anyone’s peace, especially on the days when we go out into our villages. But to a little kid or an elderly man or woman who has been doing this for decades, actions like what I mentioned above definitely disturbs our peace, especially for the cause we do it for, our faith.

These people that got yelled at don’t have the luxury that a lot of other people have during Christmas, New Year’s, or the conjoining feasts that follow them. Rather than sleeping in after a long night of partying, they wake up early in the morning, connect their sound systems, prepare snacks to nourish them during the route, and spend hours either in the hot sun or the driving rain just to give their neighbors and friends a little bit of peace, the solace that only the Baby Jesus can give during this season. And it’s not only one day, it’s two weeks. They don’t do it for glory, recognition, or even a dime, they do it out of love.

True, for someone not in tune with our practices, this ritual may seem out of place for them, but this is a part of our culture and it will always be. The act of bringing the Infant Christ to villages and homes is never thought of as a chore or an extracurricular activity; it’s an honor. An honor that they hope to one day pass down to their children and their grandchildren. To chastise people who try to make other people’s days more peaceful through this activity is not right.

I know that when you read this, the loudspeakers will have already been placed back in storage, and each baby statue we use will be placed back at its respective place of adoration, waiting to be brought back down and shared by many of us again, so arguing about this wouldn’t do much right now. But to the individuals I mentioned in this piece, I offer this suggestion for next time in a way to smooth things out. For next year, rather than being rude, disrespectful, or in my friend and team’s case threatening when they come by, welcome them with open arms and give back the smiles they give you when they see you rather than threaten them.

To anyone who still isn’t familiar with this custom, if what we do triggers curiosity in you, come out and inquire what’s going on and we will kindly explain the significance of this tradition, a tradition which has thrived on our islands for generations and is even done by our friends abroad in many different states and other parts of the world. The Child we bring doesn’t come to disturb you but rather to give you blessings, blessings that can warm the coldest of hearts and bring love to the loneliest of souls. This is what Christmas is all about and this is why we as members of our Niñu teams do what we do. To scold these people is the equivalent of scolding “the reason for the season.” That in itself is something no one, no matter what walk of life they’re from, can ever appreciate.

In closing, I address those people who I mentioned, that neighbor and that tenant. This is a season of forgiving. I hope after this season there will be no hard feelings on your part by what we do, because eventually all feelings of hurt our teams may have felt will be forgotten and forgiven, and the teams will once again gather together next Christmas and continue the good work they do. The thing I ask you as I end this is to please try to be a little kinder to them next year.

Belated happy holidays everyone!