New Year message same as Christmas: love

By Al S. Mendoza

DO you know the fastest days to disappear every year?

They are the days between Christmas and New Year.

We have just celebrated the birth of Christ and, suddenly, there is another day to rejoice with as much gusto:  New Year.

There seems to be no let up.

We party almost every day in the run-up to Christmas Eve.

We cap that on December 24 with the fabled Noche Buena, that timeless tradition where all family members assemble at the dining table to feast on the most sumptuous foods of the year.

But before that, all of Christendom hear Mass that ends minutes, if not an hour, before the clock ticks midnight.

At the sound of 12, we applaud the birthday of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Dear Lord—the strongest symbol of love and forgiving.

We opened gifts after the midnight pigging, with the kids enjoying the moment the most.

For, as we love to say, Christmas is for the children.

Although I had been insisting all along that Christmas is also for adults, especially the senior citizens.

In fact, the elderly must be all the more showered with gifts than the young ones.

Their time on earth is the main factor for us to show all the love—gifts or hugs, whatever—this season of sweetness.

Christmas is the ultimate time to unload all our affection, our loving thoughts, our everything to both our loved ones and strangers as well.

We kiss the hands of our parents, grandparents and, to some lucky enough to be born early, grand grandparents.

We embrace body and soul like we had never done it before.

There is no other time that is awash in love than Christmas.

In short, if there’s one time when there is unli love, it’s the Christmas season.

Dispute that and I surmise even Mang Inasal will debate with you up to the ends of the earth.

And then, when we thought we were done with all the revelry with the Noche Buena, New Year is with us.

It’s like a double whammy of sorts.

A twin happiness, though.

Christmas Eve with the Noche Buena and next, the New Year’s Eve with the equal importance and meaning of Media Noche.

Both “noches” happen to present the most bountiful nutritious menu on the table.

You just couldn’t afford to miss either one of them.

But then, there are homes oozing with delicacies but others with less, and still others virtually with nothing but a humble plate of pancit or bowl of Nissin’s noodles, plus a Family Coke.

In my childhood, at least we had queso de bola, jamon and pandesal on Noche Buena—all coming from relatives in Manila.

But on Media Noche to meet the New Year, just a bowl of arroz caldo prepared patiently on slow fire by my dearest, departed mother.

I’ve had that arroz caldo dish—lots of ginger, chicken wings in it—up to when I got married, up to when the kids have started coming (just two).

Because habits die hard, I’ll have that again on Tuesday, the New Year’s Eve.

And, just like last Christmas Eve, lots of love are with every slurp I do.

Because just like last Christmas, New Year is also about love, forgiving. 

You love and forgive for 2020, you’ll be fine the rest of the year.

Happy New Year!

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