here we go a caroling...

One of the Christmas traditions here in the Philippines is caroling. But its a little different than at home. My memories of caroling at home was the spontaneous activity of the family bundling up to sing for a few neighbors. We didn't really expect anything from anyone. At the most, we appreciated a wave from the window. At the least, we hoped they didn't turn their lights out when we started singing!

Here, the expectations are a tad different. Groups of people, mostly kids, will go from door to door singing Christmas songs for cash or food. It is an expectation, and even a fond memory of Filippinos, to have something on hand to give all the carolers that come by throughout the season.

For the past two weeks, we've had people singing outside our gate EVERY night. Tonight, the group sang one song and then shouted "MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS!" incessantly for 10 minutes waiting for someone to come give them something.

I haven't really figured this tradition out yet, because it seems so backward to me. Kind of a "Let me bless you so you can bless me" sort of thing. Its not that I'm against caroling, or even children hoping for a handout. But, I have yet to understand how we're supposed to have enough money to handout to group after group for evening after evening, weeks on end. I don't really get the "merry" part of that, but maybe somehow I'm missing the point. I still do that alot around here.

Here's a video as an example. This is not our house. I grabbed this from YouTube. But its a great example of how it works (notice the THIRD group starting up as the video ends :)

Geoff and I were joking that we should get all the foreigners together and go caroling at the Filipino houses!