What’s there in this month?
Pasko siyempre! Dalawang linggo na lang at Pasko na!
Christmas of course! Just two weeks left and it’s Christmas already!
It’s been said that the Christmas season starts in September in the Philippines. As soon as the month of the year ends with -ber, radio stations start playing carols. Here is the section of the site with a few recordings and translations of Filipino yuletide favorites tagaloglang.com/christmas-songs
The Tagalog word Pasko derives from the Spanish word Pascua. Although the word Pascua means Easter, Pascua de Navidad refers to Christmas.
Mexico has its iconic piñata, while the Philippines has the parol. The big difference is that a parol is not something to hit with a stick. It is a Christmas lantern, most commonly in the shape of a five-pointed star. The bamboo or rattan frame is covered with rice paper, tissue or cellophane.
For more on Filipino Christmas traditions, see https://www.tagaloglang.com/christmas
The word for gift is regalo, but the special word for “Christmas gift” is pamasko. And the Filipino version of Secret Santa is called Monito Monita or Kris Kringle.
Did you know there’s an easy way to customize gift items with Tagalog words? We’re not very artistic ourselves, but you can see a few examples of what we’ve done and give it a shot yourself at http://zazzle.com/tagalog*
We hope to soon conduct an online poll and more actively seek out your feedback as to how to further develop the site and this newsletter. Maraming salamat po! Thank you very much!
