What Our Christmas and New Year was Like in Honolulu
( December 2006 and January 2007 )
By Juny P. La Putt, Bsce, Ms, Pe
Christmas is celebrated in most countries around the world, owing to the spread of Christianity and Western culture. And out here in Honolulu, we do celebrate Christmas and the coming of the New Year as well. And it is for this reason why I thought of putting together this webpage to show how we celebrate the Christmas Season here in paradise.
We have always associated Christmas as an annual holiday that marks the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. However, celebrating the birthdate of Jesus on December 25 is merely traditional, and is not widely considered to be his actual date of birth. Christmas celebration takes the form of various other traditions and customs, many of which were influenced by ancient winter festivals. In many countries, such as in the Philippines, the United States, and Canada, Christmas traditions include the display of Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Popular Christmas themes include the promotion of goodwill, giving, compassion, and quality family time. And since my childhood days, this is the way I have always known what Christmas is like.
Various local and regional Christmas traditions are still practiced in different parts of the world. For example, in Britain, children write their letters to Father Christmas and then throw them into the fireplace so they will float up the chimney and fly to the North Pole. If the lists catch fire first, they have to rewrite them. Christmas is celebrated in Finland by having a sauna bath before Santa's visit. On Christmas day most people go to "Christmas Church" and afterwards visit the grave sites of their loved ones and light candles for them.
In Germany, children decorate their Christmas Lists with pictures and then leave them on the windowsill overnight, weighed down with a little sugar so they won't be missed by Father Christmas. While in New Zealand, it is the middle of summer at Christmas time. Instead of a hot drink Santa often gets a cooling beer as a snack on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day families often have a picnic or go to the beach for Christmas dinner. It is more traditional to have a cold ham than a hot turkey.
The Honolulu City Lights Celebration "Honolulu City Lights" is Hawaii's premiere holiday event which is sponsored by the Honolulu city mayor, the employees of the City and County of Honolulu, the Friends of Honolulu City Lights and many community-minded businesses. Honolulu Hale, the City Hall in downtown Honolulu, is the focal point for the decorating of Oahu at Christmas time. Each year it draws hundreds of thousands of people to Honolulu Hale and the Civic Center grounds. This year, the opening festivities started on Saturday, December 2, 2006.
Now on its 22nd year, the 2006 "Honolulu City Lights" celebration embraces the many wonderful characteristics and uniqueness of the people of Hawaii and our island home. Employees from the more than 20 city departments have always delighted everyone with their beautifully decorated Christmas trees as a gift to the people of Hawaii and to visitors from around the world. Some of these trees have a theme connected with a specific branch of the city. These Christmas trees are displayed at the main lobby of Honolulu Hale for the duration of the Yuletide Season.
Each year during the holidays, residents and visitors come in droves to see the Honolulu City Lights. On opening night alone, an estimated 75,000 people join in to kick-off the holiday season. It's a time when the city decorates inside and out of Honolulu Hale with Christmas decorations.
Outside the doors of Honolulu Hale stands a large lighted Christmas tree. There are also some decorations with a Hawai'i flavor, such as the over-sized barefooted Santa and Mrs Claus and the very large ukulele positioned infront of the Christmas tree. Inside Honolulu Hale there is a long red carpet with a number of potted poinsettia plants along the path. The hallway at the ground floor of the right wing of Honolulu Hale has both walls filled with all the wreaths that were submitted for the wreath competition.
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The FALEA Carollers at Our Home in Ewa Beach For the past three years, my family have always looked forward to the yearly corolling activities of the Filipino-American League of Engineers and Architects (FALEA). Going to a number of selected homes during the Yuletide Season, a small group of talented FALEA Carollers have been doing this for a number of years now as a way of raising needed funds for the different activities and programs of their organization. And one of their most laudable project is to raise enough money which is in turn offered as scholarship grants to deserving students of Filipino ancestry who are pursuing courses in engineering, surveying, and architecture in the different colleges and universities in Hawaii as well as in the mainland.
This year, the FALEA carollers once again made it to our home in Ewa Beach just a few weeks before Christmas day. They sang different Filipino and a number of popular American Christmas songs which really delighted my friends, most especially the non-Filipinos whom I have invited to witness this event. In turn, we have also taken it upon ourselves to prepare some food to serve the carollers and our visitors. A number of our visitors who were able to join us in previous years even brought some food and drinks to share with everyone.
When the carollers arrived at our home at about 8:00 o'clock in the evening, they started singing Christmas carols at our front porch and I opened the front doors of our home to allow my visitors to listen to them. We all joined in the singing of a number of Christmas songs that even our next door neighbors were also curious and listened to us. We then invited everyone into our family room where the singing continued. We spent the rest of the evening feasting on the food and socializing with everyone present.
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Christmas Eve Party at The Agraan Residence in Kapolei On Christmas Eve, my wife Nena and I were invited to the home of Nap and Suzie Agraan in one of the subdivisions in the Kapolei District of Honolulu. The Agraans are our family friends and we have attended a number of parties and celebrations they have hosted at their beautiful home. And just like many other Filipino homes during the Christmas Season, they served a lot of food for their visitors. Just as Filipinos back home in the Philippines would serve their guests on most special occasions, there were platefulls of "pancit", fried chicken, "pinapaitan", fried and fresh "lumpia", "kilawen", and various other Filipino dishes and desserts ... and when we left later that evening our hosts even asked us to take home with us whatever food was left on the table. As usual, everyone participated in the singing of Christmas carols which was led by the FALEA Carollers who were also present that evening.
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Celebrating Christmas Day At Home in Ewa Beach It was only about 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve when we left to attend the midnight mass at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church along Renton Road in Ewa Beach. Fred and Daylin Magdalena, their daughter Janice, and a young lady friend (Bebe) of theirs joined Nena and I in attending the midnight mass. Our 19-year old grandson Kyle also came along with us. The Magdalena family are originally from Iligan City and since immigrating to the United States about 3 years ago, we have always invited them to most of our family gatherings. Fred, a former professor at the Mindanao State University in Marawi City, now teaches at the Philippine Studies Center of the University of Hawaii. Although Bebe is a muslim, she still decided to join us for the midnight mass. She told me that she came along to observe how we Catholics celebrate the holy mass.
The small church at Renton Road is only a 10 minute drive from our home in Ewa Beach. Along the way, we passed by some homes in a subdivision which were beautifully decorated with Christmas lights that I had to stop and take pictures. Although the start of the midnight mass was still some 15 minutes away, the church was already filled with people that some of us were only able to occupy seats under a canvass canopy which were provided outside the church. Even the parking stalls were already filled with cars. The church is is not often filled with people when we attend mass on Saturdays or Sundays and I was amazed with the large number of people who came to attend the midnight mass. Probably there are some people who attend mass only on special holidays such as Christmas Day. After the mass we proceeded back home and had our "noche buena" which consisted of "arroz caldo", "dinuguan", "puto" and soda. It was already about 2:30 a.m. when we finally went to bed. And, of course, we didn't serve "dinuguan" to Bebe knowing that muslims don't eat pork, however, she had a bowl of "arroz caldo" and some of the "puto" as well.
We woke up at about 7:30 the following morning which was Christmas Day. After breakfast, we just waited for my daughter Tessie and her two daughers (Elle and Gianne) to arrive before opening our Christmas gifts. They three grandkids were all excited about their gifts and it didn't take long for them to accummulate a large pile of boxes and torn gift wrappers which were scattered all over the floor. Even the not-so-young anymore also opened the gifts we prepared for them. We also found time to have our pictures taken with the Christmas Tree in the background. Nena and I had our picture taken by Kyle while I took pictures of the Magdalena Family as well as Kyle and his girlfriend Adrianne who also came later to join us. Even Bebe also had her own picture taken. It was already past noon time when we had lunch. Nena and Daylin prepared most of the food while Fred and I did the barbeque outside.
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A Noisy and Colorful Celebration of New Year in Kailua My grandson Kyle was invited by the family of his girlfriend to celebrate the coming of the New Year in Kailua. Since Kailua is located on the windward side of the island of Oahu (a good 30-minute drive) and that it would already be after midnight when he would be able to go back home, his girlfriend asked if I could take Kyle to Kailua and also join them in welcoming the New Year. Nena was on duty at the hospital for the New Year and since I was the only one who would be left at home in our apartment, I decided to accept the invitation ... and see for myself how the people in Kailua celebrate the coming of the New Year.
There was a lot of food that was prepared and right upon our arrival we did a lot of eating. New Year was still about 3 hours away but people in the neighborhood were already outdoors exploding firecrackers and shooting fireworks into the sky. It was like a war zone with the bursting of firecrackers all around and very much similar to what people back home in Manila also do during New Year's Eve. We were all seated just beside the street right infront of their home and spent the whole evening watching the young kids, and also the adults, enjoying themselves in lighting up their firecrackers. And just minutes before midnight the noise of bursting firecrackers intensified and the night sky was lighted up with a beautiful display of fireworks. Luckily, I brought along my digital camera and was able to take pictures.
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It was already past 2:00 o'clock in the morning of January 1st when Kyle and I drove back home. Welcoming the coming of the New Year in Kailua was quite an experience for me since I was also able to meet and know better the family of Kyle's girlfriend. I guess welcoming the New Year in Kailua marked the end of our celebration of the Christmas Season. The past few days has indeed been an enjoyable one being with my family and some close friends and associates ... and having the opportunity to celebrate together the joyous season of Christmas and the coming of the New Year. And I pray you and your family also had an enjoyable time together on Christmas and the New year.
junylaputt@yahoo.com
