Merry Christmas Asian style

Maligayang Pasko, or Merry Chrismas everyone!
I'm back in Hong Kong where Christmas is very much a going financial and commercial concern. In the Philippines, on the other hand, it was very much a religious concern. On the first day I arrived, I already ran into a parade with teenage cheerleaders twirling their batons followed by floats with saints and holy family members tottering in effigy on top. A friendly priest splattered holy water into the multitudes, I just got my camera out of the way before it became sanctified.

Christmas decorations are big in the Philippines. Especially Christmas stars. Apparently every village competes with their neighbours in creating the best and finest Christmas star. These are often more than a meter wide and usually made from recycled materials or materials to be found in nature - this possibly more a testimony to the tightness of the budgets though than to true environmental mindedness. Personal favourites are Christmas stars made from colourful plastic drinking straws. In this coutry you do not, I really mean NOT, ever drink a Coke except through a straw. Sometimes the drink may be poured out of the bottle into a transparent plastic bag before it is given to you, but even then, a plastic straw will be firmly stuck in the opening. So there's certainly lots of recyclable material to use. I will be holding a workshop on making your own drinking straw star when I get back - sign up here!


Christmas trees are also prominently present. Sometimes they are humble affairs with colourful string stretched out from a central pole to form a more or less spruce-like conical shape. However e.g. Coron boasted a neon-flashing, singing Christmas tree in front of the town hall, which poured forth a merry medley of Christmas classics 24/7 (the image above).
However with all the Christmas regalia, somehow for a Finn it's just hard to get into the mood when it's hot and sunny and all together like a warm day in July. Soon the snow will no doubt put me in the mood (or a mood - a black one) allright.
So another trip comes to its close and woollen socks and hypothermia await - as do good friends, warm saunas, glogi, bread that isn't sweetened with sugar, Kaffecentralen coffee... so it's not all bad!
As a final Christmas present to you all, I will solve a mystery, which has baffled man through the decades: What happens to the odd pairs of socks that mysteriously dissappear during laundry? Waiting for my luggage to arrive from the sea&sun of Coron, I saw among the luggage on the conveyor belt a familiar looking, solitary black sock go round and round. So the answer is: your socks are snorkeling in the Philippines. Socks ain't dumb!