A personal vlog-style discussion by John Jonas comparing U.S. and Filipino Christmas timing and customs. He describes the Philippines’ extended ‘ber months’ starting in September, nightly masses (Simbang Gabi) from Dec 16–24, the cultural priority of family gatherings, the legally-mandated 13th month pay and its role in holiday spending, and workplace/leave effects around the holidays.
Chapters
It's already Christmas in the Philippines. So it is late December. And in the US at least there's always this like debate. In my wife's family there's always this debate of like, when is, when does Christmas start? When are you allowed to start Christmas? And specifically probably Christmas music is the real debate. So for us in our family, we say the day after Halloween, Christmas is allowed to start. And my wife says this because, number one, Christmas music is really great. We love it. You don't listen to it for 10 months of the year at all. Whether you like it or not, you don't listen to it. And then she feels like decorating for Christmas is so much work that if she's going to do the work, she wants to enjoy it. So usually she starts November 1st. This year she started like November 3rd. And it's been like a, it's been a long process of decorating up until probably a couple weeks ago of Christmas decorating. We have a sister in law though who, who feels like, yeah, I'm gonna listen to Christmas music anytime I want throughout the year. So it's March, she's listening to Christmas music not always, but it's just part of her normal music. Other people in the family feel like, no, Christmas starts December 1st. You don't listen to Christmas music until then. In the Philippines though, Christmas started in September. So if you think your Christmas starts early, here's how it is in the Philippines and here's some kind of Christmas cultural things around the Philippines. So I actually like that their Christmas season starts early. I feel like, number one, I feel like Halloween brings out the worst in, or at least Halloween tries to bring out the worst in everybody. It tries to bring out devils and evil and candy and I hate it. I hate Halloween. But I've talked about that before. Whereas I feel like Christmas brings out the best in everyone, giving gifts and helping and donating and volunteering and Christmas brings out the best. So I love that their Christmas starts in September for them. They have a term called ber months. Ber months, September 1st. And you'll hear Christmas music in stores, you'll hear on the radio, they'll begin their Christmas decorations in early September in shops. So from like December 16th to December 24th, they have a thing called simbang Gabi. I don't know how to pronounce, pronounce that. But it's nightly masses that they go to basically every night. And everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people go every night from the 16th to the 24th. Another part of Kind of Filipino Christmas tradition is in the Philippines, family comes first, always. Everybody spends Christmas, Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year's, New Year's Eve, always with family. It's considered rude to spend it with friends. So oftentimes in the Philippines, you can tell if there is a family reunion going on because everybody will have the same T shirts. And you'll see that in, like an area, you'll see a whole bunch of people with, with the same shirts and you know, hey, there's a family reunion going on. This is especially common on New Year's Day. Christmas is also a time where people visit their godparents or their God children. So Santa isn't as big in the Philippines as it is in the US and so there's no guarantee you're going to get anything from Santa in the Philippines, but you can almost always be sure that you'll get presents from your godparents. And that's kind of expected in the Philippines as godparents give gifts to their God children. Another part of Christmas, why it's starting early is people are looking forward to the 13th month. And I've talked about this multiple times already, but that 13th month, which is law in the Philippines, if you're a Filipino employer, it's legally required that you pay this 13th month bonus, which, if you want to know more about it, onlinejobs, ph 13thmont, onlinejobs ph13th but for you, it's not required, but you should do it. And Christmas bonus is also something that people look forward to. Again, not required. So usually all that stuff is used to either pay for the food for Christmas feasts or New Year's parties or gifts. They used it usually for their family around this time. So that's something that they look forward to for a long time. So with all this lead up to Christmas, there's a couple things that happen. Number one, Filipinos are hesitant to start a job and in December because they don't know how their new employer is going to react to their desired time off. To what? To the partying that's going to happen around Christmas. They just don't know, so they're hesitant. Two, they want to take time off, and that's not that different from you. But for them, there's like family pressure to take the time off to be with them, to travel to. You know, like, if they live a boat ride away, which, you know is a day and a half to get there, then they have to spend the time with the family and then there's a boat ride and a half a day and a half of boat ride to get back, plus time. There's a lot going on, and they're hesitant to tell you about all of this. And so it's just good for you to recognize around the holidays, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of pressure. There's family pressure. Specifically in the Philippines. Don't expect a ton. Now, obviously, if you're in an E Commerce business, you can expect that they work up till Christmas and you whatever you need right after, I would suggest you let them know that, hey, we're gonna do this, we're gonna work really hard. And then after, like, on the 28th or whatever, you can have a bunch of time off, because that then at least it relieves the pressure of Christmas towards being with their family on New Year's, which is a really, really big deal for them.
