Does anybody celebrate Christmas mass novena?

[Tesseract]

Actually, I dont know exactly how to phrase it, so pardon my thread title. In the Philippines, it's called Simbang Gabi, literally translated into "Night Mass"

Its celebrated here starting October 16/15 all the way until Christmas eve. It's mass everyday till the 24th..

Do you celebrate that, where you are?

 

[Avila]

Don't know about it, but it sounds nice!

 

[ZooMom]

Nope, I haven't heard of it either. Do you not have Mass at your church everyday anyway? Or is just the night-time Masses that start then?


I was just thinking...looking at the flags...you should get the Filipino flag put up. My husband went to the Philippines during one of his tours in the Marines. He has a jacket that he left with me whenever he had to go away, and would send me flag patches of the countries he visited to sew on the jacket. I got both sleeves covered, shoulder to wrist. Of course, I've never left the East Coast.


God bless...


Sandy

 

[Tesseract]

Oh. I asked my parents. Simbang Gabi is a nine-day novena here in the Philippines, celebrated in anticipation of Christmas. Traditionally, it was meant for rural farmers who couldnt go to the regular mass times. They had to be in the fields early in the morning, so mass was celebrated earlier in the morning. Like, 4am in the morning.

Now, Simbang Gabi is either the night before (anticipated mass on Tuesday for Wednesday morning and the like), or waay early in the morning (eg, 5am)

Apparently, this celebration is endemic to the Philippines, so no worries. If you have questions, Id be glad to answer them.

Sandy: That is soo cool, sewing flags on your husband's shirt. I mean, it's like a collection.. or maybe a UN convention on his shirt, eh? Thanks for thinking about the Philippines.

Philippine flag trivia: Do you know that the Philippines has the only flag that has different meanings if placed differently?

It is! *g* The Phil flag has a blue half and a red half. The blue half is always on top of the red, because when the red part is on top, it means that the country's at war. Cool eh?

 

[ZooMom]

That's pretty neat. I didn't know that about the flag.

I love that old jacket. I was only 16 when we met and I used to get teased when I would wear it to school. No-one believed that it really belonged to an actual Marine. 'Course they all shut up after Michael took me to the prom wearing dress blues. That was way cool!

The French flag is my favorite, though. That's were he was when he proposed.


God bless...


Sandy

 

[Tesseract]

Sandy, your story is even cooler!

Wow. You met your husband while in high school? Hehe. You mustve felt vindicated when he DID come in his uniform, huh?

Shucks. It must be really nice to have memories tied up with your flags. It makes the collecting even more special.

 

[ZooMom]

Wow. You met your husband while in high school?

Yep. We met in May of my Sophomore year. So that will make it 15 years that we've been together this spring. Almost half my life! :lol: Ppl always think it's weird that I got married so young and wasn't even pregnant at the time. In fact, I was 21 when we had our first baby. But it was meant to be.

 

[Avila]

Cool, Sandy! I was married at 19, and ppl always thought it was a shotgun wedding & I was waaay to young. They're really surprised that Tommy is only 11 mos, though because we've been married 4 years! :lol: Cool story, though!