Half of Christmas is in the waiting. My personal opinion, of course. This came across my mind while attending the Misa de Gallo this morning. This is also one of the reasons why we have the longest Christmas season, probably in the whole world, which starts on December 16, with the first of the nine-day novena, and ends on the feast of the Three Kings. I guess it’s because the 9 dawn masses are a tradition that we have grown up with, and that for us Catholics in the Philippines, Christmas is definitely no Christmas without these days of anticipating and preparing ourselves for the birth of Christ.

There have been a few Christmas seasons in the past when I failed to attend the novena and come Christmas day, I felt it was just another special day devoid of the uplifting feeling that comes with the joy of this blessed season. Oh, there were the gift-giving, the merrymaking, reunion with family and friends, the Christmas songs of carolers - but I just felt that it was somehow incomplete. I have since resolved to attend every single mass during the novena period. I find meaning in having to wake up as early as 3 a.m. to attend the 4 a.m mass for nine straight days. It’s a penance of sorts. It’s also a lot of time to ponder on and be grateful to God for the blessings of the year about to end, to do some soul-searching and get in touch with our higher selves. Still for others, it’s a novena to get a prayer request granted. Whatever it is, the Misa de Gallo is a treasured tradition, one of the few traditions that has remained well-embraced by most Catholics in the country, and has endured the test of the modern times. Let’s keep it that way.

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