KAMSACK — In the Philippines, Christmas is really big, so big that it begins in the “Bermonths,” RJ Falqueza said during a recent interview in his Second Street home in Kamsack.
“You know, the Bermonths: September, October, November and December, and the season doesn’t end until January or February,” he said, laughing.
For Christmas, the celebrations can begin in September and during the season all the businesses are decorated and there’s Christmas music in the malls, he said. It’s a long holiday and includes Christmas feasts and all the children return home for big family reunions.
“At Christmas, family and friends come together,” he said. “It’s a really big thing.”
He said Catholics hold “night service,” called “night service,” even though it is held at 4 a.m., from Dec. 16 to 24.
It too, is all about people coming together.
Anne talked about the assortment of festive foods that are available during the Christmas period.
“At stalls near the church, delicious rice cakes are sold,” Anne explained. “And the big meal on Dec. 24 features pork, roasted pork, like a whole sucking pig.”
Children and adults go carolling, RJ said, explaining that children make tambourines from bottle tops and go door-to-door singing and requesting gifts. The gifts are not toys or candy, but money.
Some people use homemade instruments, like banging pots and pans together, he said. It’s all fun and it starts early and keeps going through to Christmas day and even beyond.
Because December is the rainy season, it’s cooler than in summer, but the Philippine Christmas season is like summer is here, it’s jacket weather, Anne said.
Everyone gathers on Christmas Eve to feast and to pray, she said. “It’s all about family.”
“The reason for Christmas is Jesus Christ and the greatest gift is Jesus and we are to be thankful for that,” RJ said.
“Sure, it’s fun to have Santa Claus and gifts, but we teach that the main focus of Christmas is Jesus, that’s the true meaning of the holiday,” Anne said.
“What we will miss here in Kamsack, of course, is our family,” she said, adding that their two children are enjoying the snow and have gone sledding on the hill at the Victoria School grounds. “They love it.”
For Christmas in Kamsack, the Falquezas say they look forward to enjoying a dinner with friends, especially other Filipinos who have come to live in the community. But, rather than turkey, they expect they will be serving a roast pork dish.
“We’re happy to be in Canada,” RJ said, explaining that they are on the path to acquiring their permanent residencies, which is a prerequisite for becoming full-fledged citizens.
“We’re from a small town in northern Philippines, so we like Kamsack,” he said. Of course, “small town” in the Philippines is more like the size of Yorkton than is Kamsack.
A trained nurse, Anne had worked as a nurse in Singapore for almost five years before the COVID-19 epidemic, but then an opportunity arose for a job in Canada. She went to a recruitment office and soon was on her way to Canada. She arrived last November and began working as a nurse at the Kamsack Hospital in February.
RJ, who had worked in sales for the Johnson and Johnson international corporation, quit that job to look after their children full-time, and joined her in Kamsack in May.
