Christmas in the Philippines

Moving on from Africa we focused our studies on the chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Philippines. Christmas is a big deal here! As we saw in South America a large percentage of this nation has Catholic influences. (They also have a Misa de Gallo, known as Simbag Gabi in Tagalog). Celebration of the holiday season begins back in September. Yes, in September, when people begin decorating and start a daily countdown from 100 days. This is even broadcast on the nightly news.

Many homes decorate on the inside as much as they can afford to with Christmas trees and a Nativity. The most important decoration in a Filipino Christmas is the parol. This star lantern can be hand-crafted by the family, but is also available commercially.

Gift-giving is an central part of Christmas in the Philippines with gifts often exchanged amongst family, friends, acquaintances, and co-workers. The biggest celebration takes place at midnight on December 24th. During this time, Buena Noche, gifts are shared and a large meal enjoyed.

Caroling takes place throughout the region by those seeking to gain money or food. Performances can also be planned as a way to raise support for charitable work. We enjoyed listening to this Christmas song done by a school in the Philippines.

We'll be back soon to share a little more of what we learned about this region of the world.

Links:
Christmas in the Philippines
Parols

Special thanks to Naomi for sharing all she is learning in the Philippines. Praying for you and your family.

Christmas in Tanzania- Cont.

Here are the results of our study of Tanzania. For our craft we focused on creating Cut Paper Collages of Christmas scenes. This is a few of the kids works, though they had so much fun with it, they have made many of them to decorate the house.


I also finished the ornament to represent Tanzania on the World Christmas tree- an African-style angel.

Christmas in Tanzania

Continuing with our studies of Christmas Around the World we zoom over to Tanzania today to look at an African country. This country has a population that is largely Muslim, so Christmas is not as prominent as it is in other parts of the world. On a whole the nation is poorer than most as well, so we learned children often receive a set of cloths as their main gift (possibly the only clothes they will receive all year). Knowing that Christmas is simpler here makes me look at our American Christmas through different eyes. What a wealth of things we have for ourselves even when we think the budget is a bit tight. It is good to be reminded of the need around the world for simple things that we take for granted.

Our craft for today is roughly based off the book The Night Before Christmas by Rachel Isadora. This book is a retelling of the well-known poem by Clement Moore with beautiful artwork depicting an African setting. It is done in a cut-paper collage format that we will be duplicating with our own Christmas images. This is a great way for us to incorporate our paper-fold-and-cut snowflakes for this holiday season. Be back tomorrow to share our results.




For links used in reference today go to:
Christmas in Africa
Christmas in Tanzania

Praying for Mavuno Village and their work in Tanzania.

Christmas in Puerto Rico

Now we travel to Puerto Rico in our Christmas Around the World studies. A Puerto Rican Christmas has similar traditions to Bolivia with many of the influences coming from Spanish descent and Catholic history.

Holiday celebrations begin after Thanksgiving and last until January 6, El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day). Most of the festivities center around music, such as parrandas (caroling), where groups of friends travel the neighborhoods waking up "unsuspecting" neighbors with singing. The group is welcomed with parties and further singing through the night. Here is a well-known song I thought fitting to share.

Many Puerto Ricans do their big feast on Christmas Eve and also attend La Misa de Gallo. After a week of celebrating and bringing in the new year, the children prepare for Three Kings Day by placing a box with grass under their beds for the kings' camels and in return receive gifts. For our Christmas Around the World tree we created a star (again from the ornament dough) to represent los Tres Reyes Magos who followed the star to Bethlehem in search of Christ.

Links I referenced:
A Puerto Rican Christmas
Welcome to Puerto Rico
Christmas Traditions of Puerto Rico

Christmas in Bolivia- Cont.

Here are the results of some of our Bolivian Christmas studies. The felt gallo is for adding to our Christmas Around the World tree.

The pesebre created with the ornament dough recipe from my previous post. (These were created by my children, ages 8 and under). The background is a woven cloth brought from Bolivia to me by my sister and brother-in-law.



For further study of Bolivia we will be endeavoring to make some treats that may be found in Bolivian homes around the holidays. Here are a couple links to recipes for special candies, Turrones, and puff pastry, Buñuelos.

Christmas in Bolivia

For our first country we focused on Bolivia as a representation of South American culture. We listened to a few villancicos de Navidad (Christmas carols) and found this one to share.

We read that many Bolivian homes have a pesebre (nativity) as their centerpiece. To make our own pesebre we are using the following recipe and molding the pieces:

Clay Christmas Ornaments
Mix together in a large bowl.
4 c flour
1 c salt
1 tsp alum
1 1/2 c water
If the dough is too dry, work in another Tablespoon of water. Roll dough to 1/8" and cut with cookie cutters, or mold dough into figures no more than 1/2" thick.
Bake ornaments at 250 degrees Fahrenheit on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 30 min. Turn over and bake another 1 1/2 hr until dry and hard. Remove and cool.
Sand with fine sandpaper and paint. Seal with clear acrylic or shellac.

We also found that many Bolivians attend La Misa Del Gallo (Mass of the Rooster). This name is based on the legend that the rooster may have been the first animal to announce the birth of Jesus. To remember all the countries we are studying this year we have started a felt tree. Each country will be represented by an ornament we place on the tree. For Bolivia we have chosen to make and add a rooster. For now I will share this wonderful rooster I found online. Soon I hope to have pictures of our own work to share.

For more links and sites I have referenced go to:
Bolivia Bella
Christmas Traditions in Spain and Latin America

The Ornament Recipe is loosely based on a recipe found in Feed Me I'm Yours by Vicki Lansky.

Christmas Around the World

Christmas is such a busy time in our home, that I decided to take a relaxed approach to our home school day. Our plan for the next month is to continue with math and reading, while for other subject areas, we will be completing a unit study on Christmas around the world. As there would be no way to cover the cultural traditions of most of the countries, we have chosen to focus our studies on countries that have a more personal meaning to our family. In the upcoming days I will be organizing my thoughts and ideas here, so feel free to glean any helpful ideas that would benefit your own home. (And if you have any ideas to share with us, please feel free to leave a comment. We love to learn.)