John Jonas explains why the week between Christmas and New Year in the Philippines turns into "Carmageddon": last-minute shopping, family visits, beach trips, and massive fireworks displays create gridlock. He contrasts it with the quiet holidays Americans expect, using traffic photos and a story from Julia.
Chapters
The busy week between Christmas and New Year's in the Philippines. So where I live in the US I live in Utah. The week between Christmas and New Year's is pretty relaxed. I mean, people are off work, people are staying home, people are having small family get togethers. Whatever it is. I go skiing, which is generally the only reason I leave the house. Usually there's just less traffic around this time because all offices are closed, businesses are closed. Unless of course you go to the mall, which who does that anymore? Or to Walmart. And who doesn't do that in the Philippines? It's different. So something weird happens in the Philippines between Christmas and New Year's that is kind of akin to like the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday in the U.S. so Julia says we experienced something called Carmageddon Christmas, at least that's what they call it. Carmageddon, where she says there's like crazy, crazy traffic everywhere. Because this week is when everybody uses to get everything, everything done that they didn't get throughout the year, that didn't get planned for next year. Everything that get left off gets done this week. So she says traffic is not unique to Manila or specific places in the Philippines. It's everywhere. It seems to get worse around the week between Christmas and New Year's. So some of the things that they do include like visiting extended family, which is a big, big trip, otherwise you risk the wrath of the family getting at you. Last minute Christmas parties, last minute Christmas shopping, visiting Christmas displays for photos. This is one that I don't do really. Like go out to a specific spot for a picture with a big Christmas display, grocery shopping for the big meals that are to happen on Christmas and New Year's, going to the malls for adventures, going to the malls to take advantage of the buy now, pay next year sales, which the deals you get between Christmas and New Year's I guess are really, really big in the Philippines. Big enough that people buy furniture and appliances and laptops specifically during this time because stores are clearing out their inventory, cleaning up the Christmas messes and preparing for the New Year. There's just a lot going on during this week and I guess traffic gets worse. Another interesting thing to note that you may not have thought about, but the Philippines is right at the equator, so right now is hot there. And so they have different things going on. So like in, let's see, in Bulacan, traffic is caused by people going to Bukawe to, to buy fireworks. Cause fireworks is such a big part of their Christmas and New Year celebrations in Davao traffic is caused by people going to the beach. It's warm there, so they're going to the beach. There's a lot of festivals going on, which are outdoor festivals are gonna block traffic. And especially since the vaccine has gotten to the Philippines and people are getting out again, I'm guessing that a lot of these festivals and parades are gonna happen this year. So when Julia told me about this, she mentioned getting together with family again. And she told me that. That it's such a big deal, that this is the. Really, the only reason why she's willing to endure Carmageddon is to get together with family. Because if you don't, the wrath that you will get from parents and grandparents and aunties is. It's pretty. I guess it's pretty wrathful. So she expects to have to go out and deal with hours of traffic. Hopefully you can see this picture that I have. If you don't search Philippines Christmas traffic, there's some, like, the. There's some pretty crazy pictures of traffic jams where, like, cars are in an intersection going every direction all at once. Nobody's obeying any traffic lights or whatever. It's just free for all. It's pretty crazy.
