holiday rituals

Sunday, December 15 was the third Sunday of Advent this holiday season. It also marked the beginning of the dawn masses nine days before Christmas. In our barrios back home this is a big family tradition for many of its practitioners. 

Simbang Gabi, Misa de Aguinaldo, and Misa de Gallo are commonly interchanged to refer to these nine masses. Even when history shows that this was not originally so. 

Day 1 of Misa de Aguinaldo Novena, San Sbastian Cathedral, Bacolod City
- image by Andrew Altarejos

The novena masses held at dawn from December 15 to 24 are properly called Misas de Aguinaldo. They originated in Spain where “Aguinaldo” means a gift given during the Christmas season. 

Misa de Aguinaldo should not be confused with Misa de Gallo (Rooster’s Mass) which in Spain referred to Mass on Christmas Eve.

NYC holiday season

New York! New York! Holiday season is here again. The Big Apple is dressed to her nines. All showy and sparkly in everything she's got to offer us all.

There’s so much to see and so much to do, it seems there is never a definite answer as to where exactly your time should be spent in this massive urban jungle of eye candy overload.

inside out

This has been the craziest Spring season yet here in the East Coast. It seems like the weather has gotten as unpredictable as our current political state.

For starters we are in the middle of May people [!?!] and it is only now starting to warm up enough to finally shut off our heaters.

Since the last blizzard in March it seems like we have only had either wintry days or summer days but no spring days whatsoever.