Enteng Kabisote and the Traditional Christmas Bashing

Now that Christmas Day has come and gone and that we are just savoring the remaining days of the season, allow me to give a nasty killjoy statement.

Christmas Day is the time when the most predictable things happen… the more fortunate ones get the usual hams, queso de bola and calendars… everybody seems to wear the best clothes… street urchins appear out of nowhere and haunt motorists for ‘money to buy food.’

And as trite and as predictable as the staple of the yearly MMFF offering, Enteng Kabisote, is the usual Christmas homily, where parishioners are given a healthy bashing of the ‘consumerist’, ‘commecialized’ Christmas.  Jolly Ol’ St. Nick is once again the condemned thief who stole Christmas, and that people should focus on the real meaning of the season, instead of gorging on the catered meal.

The funny thing is, the parishioners do not seem to notice much at all.  All they want is to get the Mass over with so they could spend the whole day partying.   Perhaps homilists have learned much the same as Vic Sotto had with the Enteng Kabisote plot – rehashing the same old thing year–in and year–out is practical in the long run.  Paskong–pasko, bakit pa mag–iisip ng iba, o di ba?

Ironically, most of us who are so good in the traditional consumerist Christmas bashing, are so eager to get our hands on the lechon, hamon, and everything served on the table.  Yup, count me in on that one.

But seriously, next year, I hope to spend Christmas differently.  I am planning to go on a spiritual retreat where Christmas Day would be spent in prayerful silence and solitude, away from the noise, revelry, lechon and hamon, Enteng Kabisote and the traditional consumerist Christmas bashing.