Sample ghostwriting for a previous employer.
The Mass of the Rooster
Christmas, as the old cliché goes, is just around the corner. Here in the
Philippines, the Holiday Season starts on December 16 with the time-honored observance
of Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi. The Misa de Gallo is one of the longest and most
popular among the Filipino traditions in the country. For nine days, beginning on
December 16 and culminating on December 24 with the Misa de Aguinaldo, or the
midnight mass on Christmas eve, Filipinos attend dawn masses, which usually start at
4:00 a.m. This practice started centuries ago during the Spanish colonial period.
Christmas coincided with the rice harvest season when farmers have to be harvesting
their crops at the crack of dawn. To accommodate the farmers who wanted to attend mass
but could not leave their fields, the priests held early dawn masses.
In the olden times, the pre-dawn mass is announced by the ringing of the church
bells. In some provinces, brass bands play traditional Filipino Christmas songs and parish
priests would knock on the doors of every home. The faithful flock to their churches,
with the men wearing barongs and the women donning their elegant ternos. After mass,
families gather in their homes to celebrate Noche Buena where they partake of customary
Filipino delicacies like queso de bola, jamon, bibingka, puto bungbong and salabat or
tsokolate.
Nowadays, the celebration of Misa de Gallo is still observed, albeit in a lot of new
and different ways, but the tradition continues. Part of it are the colorful lights and
lanterns that still adorn the streets. Beautiful parols still hang in each window of every
home. Heart-warming Christmas songs still fill the air. And Filipino families still gather
in their homes and feast on traditional Filipino delicacies.
The Misa de Gallo traces its origins in Mexico when, in 1587, Fray Diego de
Soria, prior of the convent of San Agustin de Acolman, requested permission from the
Pope to hold Christmastide masses outdoors because the church could not accommodate
the huge number of people that attended the dawn masses. It was in the 16th century when
Pope Sixtus V decreed that these pre-dawn Masses be also held in the Philippines starting
every December 16 in keeping with the traditional nine-day festivals of Filipinos in
celebrating auspicious occasions like harvestime. The Misa de Gallo, however, was only
started in the 18th century by a Spanish friar who intended it as a novena for a bountiful
harvest the following year. After the harvest proves bountiful, the dawn Masses became
an annual tradition.
Misa de Gallo literally means Mass of the Rooster, to indicate it is held at dawn
when the rooster crows. According to legend, the crowing of the rooster at the dawn of
each morning symbolizes the daily triumph of light over darkness and the victory of good
over evil. When Christ was born, a rooster announced his birth by crowing, “Christus
Natus Est!”, “Christ is Born!” The Misa de Gallo signifies the coming of the birth of our
Lord Savior, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed His own life to save us from our sins. May the
essence of this, the Season of Hope, continue to pervade in our hearts so that we can keep
on living our lives the way our Lord wants it to be.
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