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I know it's a little early for a Christmas post, but I've been finding a lot of interesting things out lately that have to do with traditions and customs on this side of the globe.
One of the most shocking being this:
One of my work buddies has had his Christmas decorations up for almost two months now.
Yeah. Jumping the gun a bit, huh?
Actually no. You see, he's married to a Filipina and in the Philippines the Christmas season begins very early compared to the American custom. His family puts up the decor at the beginning of the "-ber" months. So the tree goes up in September and stays up throughout October, November and December.
I also found this article here that says some Filipinos even start the festivities before that. In fact, the Philippines are said to have the longest Christmas season in the world.
Can you imagine the sheer torture those poor children have to endure? When I was a kid, just the length of time between my birthday and Christmas was painful (it's really only 11 days. Yes, I was a dramatic child). That was nothing. These kids have to worry about making the naughty list for four agonizing months.
Then again, I could go for some Christmas lights for that long. Christmas lights make me giddy like a 7-year-old hopped up on sugar. When I'm in Kansas, I force the people I love to drive me around for hours just so I can look at them.
In Singapore, they light up the entire stretch of Orchard Road. It's just crazy awesome. I love how festive the whole atmosphere is.
Singaporeans too, start Christmas very early. Sandra, my good friend and one of the mystery coworkers that I'm always talking about, told me today that she puts up her tree in early November. She says that she likes to enjoy it as long as she can.
I can relate to that. We often don't take our tree down until February....because we want to enjoy it longer. Not because we're lazy. No, definitely not because of that. We like prolonging the joyful Christmas spirit into Valentine's Day. Yep.
But really though, if we didn't have these "buffer" holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, wouldn't we be putting up the tree a little sooner too? It's only weird to put it up now because it's like "Hey! You skipped Halloween!" or "Hey! We haven't had turkey yet!"
Everyone who's not a freak loves Christmas. Who wouldn't love to enjoy some twinkly lights for a few more days?
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6 years ago
4 comments:
Megan. This is so creepy it makes me wonder if you have telepathy.
My wife is Filipina and she was telling me the exact same thing, that as soon as they reach the "ber" months, they start decorating and celebrating. She also said that they usually keep the tree up until February.
I have a ton of photos of Orchard Road's Christmas Decorations from last year. I'm going to post a bunch of them at the beginning of December, for later comparison with this year's decorations.
I will definitely look forward to that post. I've always wondered just how much the decor varies from year to year.
So is your house already all done up for Santa too?
We were just talking about doing some decorating last night. We aren't going to be able to make it out of the country for the holidays, so we have to get things ready here for the holiday season. ^_^
I'm curious too. Last year was really exciting. I suppose it has to change somewhat, because how else would it have drawn a crowd like that? There were SO many people out last year!
Here's my post about last years decorations. Last year when I talked to people about how over the top the decorations were they all told me they didn't think they did as much as usual! Are you kidding me? So I too have been super excited to see what was up for this year! I even took photos of them putting up the giant snowflakes, and the piles of awaiting decorations on the ground. Anyway, from last year... http://fishkat.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/deck-the-hallsand-more/
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