Flickr photo by Stitch

Today is September 1 and it officially marks the start of what we call the “Ber” months – the last four months of the year that culminates in the celebration of Christmas and the welcoming of the New Year.

If you’re not from the Philippines and you’re reading this, then yes you read it right, Pinoys start celebrating Christmas early.  Specifically it starts on the first “Ber” month of the year.  That is the reason why “Merry Christmas” is trending on Twitter right now, because for Filipinos, Christmas starts on September.

It’s not that we all suddenly put up Christmas trees and go Christmas shopping at this time, it’s more like a gradual easing into the Christmas spirit.  It usually begins with the playing of Christmas songs on the radio.  Then a week or two later you start seeing “parols” and Christmas lights in houses and buildings and street lamps.  Until you reach December where the spirit of Christmas is just alive and visible everywhere.

So why do we celebrate Christmas this early?  I’m not exactly sure.  One of our community members, Love of Nature, posted this question some years back and there’s no one good answer to it.  Many Pinoys give different answers to the question, one explaining that a lot of us really look forward to Christmas that’s why we want to start preparing for it as early as possible.  Another answer said that Filipinos love fiestas and Christmas is considered to be the biggest fiesta of them all, that’s why we celebrate it for more than 4 months.

Allan Y in a question asked that if we celebrate Christmas early, shouldn’t we capitalize on it? That is quite true indeed.  Celebrating early means we have more time to save and prepare for Christmas.  There shouldn’t be any excuse for us to procrastinate or to cram but it should give us reason to really prepare for the season.

Another question about celebrating Christmas early is, does it bring Pinoys more hope and optimism? I just posted this question and I ask this because amid all the bad news that’s hounded our nation in the past month, the month of September seems to bring a glimmer of hope and positivity for many of us.  What do you think?  Do you share the same sentiment?

Regardless of how you look at it, I think we should all be proud and thankful that we choose to celebrate early an occasion that is all about love, giving and thanking God for the blessing of His love, His grace and His goodness to us.

From the bottom of my heart I join every Pinoy in welcoming the start of the Christmas season this September!  Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

For everyone’s information, TriNoma is one of the Ayala Mall’s newest malls located in Quezon City, at the end of the MRT northbound line, specifically the North Avenue station (as answered by stfu to Dorcas P).  The sale happens on November 13 to 16, Thursday to Sunday, with discounts of up to 70% off on selected items!  The usual mall hours are 10am to 10pm on Friday and Saturday and 10am to 9pm on Sunday until Thursday (thanks for answering this Venice!) however you can shop until 12midnight on November 14 and 15 (it’s a sale on a weekend so you get more time to shop, hehehe).  I heard they’re giving out freebies to all shopaholics in the mall (click here to find out how) so do check it out!

If you’re dropping by there anytime soon, may I suggest you check out the different food establishments in the mall because they offer a variety of restos that serve really delicious and sumptuous meals!  As valkyrieace99 shares to beegeesoldao, regardless of your budget you’ll find an excellent restaurant that will cater to your taste.  Hope this helps you out, enjoy shopping!  Oh, but don’t spend too much money, save some for the YAPpers Christmas Community Outreach!  More on that on the next post.

Last Christmas 2007, Yahoo! Answers Pinoy users more popularly known as YAPpers organized a Christmas Party for street kids.  Nearly 400 children benefited from the said event with each child going home with a gift and a smile in their face.  Aside from the gifts, the kids enjoyed playing games and eating delicious party food from Jollibee.  Much to their delight, the appearance of Santa Claus and Jollibee in YAPPasko all the more made the event memorable!

Nothing can indeed be as fulfilling as making others, especially children, happier during the Yuletide season.  Seeing these kids faces wreathed with smiles and hearing their joyful laughter was simply made YAPPasko 2007 for theYAPpers a truly memorable and meaningful one.

Thanks to Lai for writing that post, and of course to all the YAPpers who contributed and participated in last year’s YAPPasko.  It’s such a blessing to see this act of kindness and generosity by the Answers  community in giving back to another community who is in need.

This year, the YAPpers will be organizing another YAPPasko in an orphanage this December and we’ll be there to support them.  They plan to do a repeat of last year where they gave gifts to the kids, played some games with them and fed them with delicious party food.  I’ll be sharing the details in succeeding posts but right now, I’m calling on all YAPpers, old and new, to spread the word around.  We need people to support this in cash and in kind (preferably toys, clothes and children’s books) and the more participants to the event, the better.  Any offer of help will be very much appreciated.

If you’re interested to support this activity, please feel free to leave a comment or email me at jonasdelosreyes [at] yahoo [dot] com.  We only have a month to prepare for this event but we can certainly make it a reality.  In the end, we’ll all experience how giving back to people in need doesn’t actually cost, but it pays.  Many thanks everyone!

Photo by Stitch

September just sneaked in on us and we’re now in the first “ber” month of the year, which usually means one thing for us Pinoys – Christmas is near!  To be exact, from the time I make this post, it’s exactly 111 days before Christmas.  I don’t really know why but there’s something about Pinoys wanting to celebrate Christmas early and seeing the “Ber” months as the start of the Christmas countdown.

Maybe that’s why Choco Crunchies is Miguel asked the Answers community when the official start of the Christmas season here in our country – is it September 1 or December 16?  Maej said that technically, according to the Catholic Church the Christmas season starts on the Advent which is December 16, but knowing Pinoys, he admits that as early as September 1, we start looking forward to Pasko.

Allan Y asked maybe we should capitalize on this by promoting our country as the Christmas destination of the world and maybe even try to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest Christmas season in the world.  Windblown agrees completely and sees it helping our tourism industry.

In case you’re wondering what the suffix “ber” means, considering 4 of our months end with it, Rock shandy asked it already and Bruhaha shared the best answer – it is widely thought that most of the names of the months originally ended with “ber”, a form of the word for “month”.  And because we’re in the first “ber” month, Roxy <3 wants to know what we love most about the “Ber” months.  Why not share to her what makes the last four months of the year so special for you.

Whatever reason it may be, for all of us Pinoys, the Ber months mean Christmas is around the corner, and it certainly something to look forward to.  Welcome to September everyone, looking forward to October, November and especially December!