Local Christmas Traditions

With the over-the-top, paranoid-like security measures that every high-traffic US airports employ, I have decided to stay put for the holidays instead of going home as I usually do.  After working for around fourteen hours almost everyday for the past six months, I simply do not have the energy to queue for two to three hours and subject  myself  to have my luggage scanned and turned upside down after hours of meticulous packing in the hopes of finding any explosive devices.

As a predominantly Catholic country, Christmas is unquestionably  the biggest holiday here in the Philippines.  As in most of Spain's former colonies, the tradition of going to midnight mass known as La Misa de Gallo ( literally translates as "Rooster's Mass") is practiced here in the Philippines.  While midnight mass is observed exclusively on December 24 at 12 a.m. in Spanish-speaking countries,  in the Philippines, on the other hand, midnight mass is a novena of masses.   For nine days,  from December 16-24, Catholic families attend church services as a way of showing devotion and faith.  It is believed that attending all nine days will result to answered prayers.

After mass, these rice cakes known as bibingkas are consumed that are sold in church yards.  These pancake-like cakes are made of rice flour and coconut milk.  Before the invention of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), the rice grains were left to soak for a day or two to ferment in order for the batter to rise.  The grains were then ground manually with a stone grinder.  This traditional method is still done in rural areas. 

The bibingka is always served in a banana leaf, topped with salted duck eggs, water buffalo's white cheese similar to the Indian paneer and a knob of butter, sprinkled with sugar and freshly grated coconut.
 

It is cooked in this traditional clay oven over and under live coals, which contributes to these cakes' smokey flavor.  It is physically demanding to cook these cakes.  Therefore, it has always been, and still is, cooked by men. 

The cake has a smokey, sweet and salty flavor with a hint of that banana leaf taste.  Traditionally, it also had a fermented taste, which can still be found in rural areas.  However, with baking soda (bicarb) being commonly used here in Manila, the ones made here tend to be thicker and lack that traditional fermented taste  that many of the grandfathers and grandmothers miss.  They usually complain about these modern versions not tasting the same as the ones they had in their youth. They complain that these modern versions have taken on an ordinary Western-style pancakes' texture.

The parol, originating from the Spanish word farol (lantern), is an enduring Christmas symbol here in the Philippines.  Every home and town hangs these handcrafted lanterns outside.

A Christmas lantern stall

The prices vary depending on the material and the design's complexity.  The ones made of shell tend to be more expensive.   Traditionally, bamboo sticks were used as frames and wrapped with crepe paper.  These days, however, materials range from  seashells, plastic, glass to hemp.

Along with the bibingka is the puto bumbong (bamboo cakes), another rice cake traditionally associated with the Christmas holidays.  Like the other rice cake above, these bamboo cakes are also sold in church yards during the Christmas midnight mass.  The puto bumbong is the local version of the Malaysian and Indonesian putu bambu. Because purple yams and purple glutinous rice were traditionally harvested during this time of the year, the color purple, along with green and red is traditionally a Christmas color.

These cakes are made of purple glutinous rice, which  is responsible for the color .  They are sold by two or three pieces wrapped in a banana leaf with a  small bag of freshly grated coconut and muscovado sugar .  It is then topped with the grated coconut, muscovado sugar and butter.  Its texture is the same as those Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean  glutinous, sticky rice cakes (kuihs).

Like the Malaysian and Indonesian putu bambu, these local versions are also steamed in bamboo tubes, hence the name bambu (Malay) and bumbong (Filipino). 

Like most Westerners, I must admit that I have never taken a liking to these Southeast Asian glutinous rice cakes.  I generally find them to be stodgy and heavy.  Most Westerners find the texture to be "weird."  I am no different in that regard and, therefore, prefer the first rice cake featured above, the bibingka, the one made of ordinary rice flour, not glutinous rice flour.

I hope you have learned something from this Christmas post and wish all you, my readers, a Merry Christmas!