Not So Buena Noche Buena

Let’s jump the bandwagon and talk about that P 500 worth of noche Buena for a Filipino family that everyone’s talking about. (Everyone’s also talking about the murder cases in Concepcion Pequena, which may join the list of unsolved mysteries.) Well, everyone’s been slapping, hitting and kicking the noche Buena issue, that it’s black and blue and bruised already.

It’s a matter of perspective. At the minimum, a family could mean one parent and one child. That could qualify as a “family”. Of course, they’re a family. Naturally, father or mother and child would not prepare a feast that would be more than enough for them. They would cook up a feast that’s just right for the two of them.

Some two-member families could be minimalist, diet conscious, health conscious and get filled up with little consumption. They could go for low-salt, low cholesterol, and low-sugar diet. They would have modest amount of pasta. (Does it really have to be spaghetti? Pansit would suffice.) Just a little flavoring would do because too much salt is bad for health. The same goes for meat. Just sprinkle the noodles with pieces of cabbage. Now, that’s healthy. What’s for dessert? Oh, sugar is bad for your health. Maybe, they could conjure up a small piece of refrigerated graham cracker cake for two. That requires fewer ingredients than the traditional buco salad. They would cut down on milk and sugar because like what I said, they go for low-sugar. Another option is to buy a small cake. That would do for dessert. For beverages, water is the best for health. Queso de bola? Aren’t those hard to bite? How about ham? Meat isn’t really good for the health. What more do they need? They got their pasta, dessert and water. This is noche Buena!

I guess, with a noche Buena like this, they could still have change from P500. That is, if the grocery store is in walking distance, and the family completely avoids other incidental expenses. With a noche Buena like this, who needs a Christmas bonus? Now, I finally understand it when they say, every day is Christmas. We could have this every day. For some families, they could have this every weekend. In that case, every weekend is Christmas.

But, many Filipino families are not composed just of parent and child. A Filipino family is typically a bunch of kids, parents, lolo and lola, titos and titas and cousins in a compound or neighboring houses. That two-member family would visit grandparents or titos and titas or cousins. In some cases, they would join with neighbors or friends whom they consider family. Now, that’s a Filipino family.

Now, how about noche Buena? The midnight Christmas feast we call noche Buena (with all due respect to health buffs) is not a low-calorie, low-sugar, salt-free, sugar-free modest meal in small servings. Noche Buena is the feast of all feasts, the party of all parties. It’s the time when we cook the best pasta (whichever variant you may prefer), the most special pork or chicken or beef platter. Who wouldn’t want to have lechon? I almost forgot the ham. There has to be buco salad (which isn’t actually salad, but that’s what we call it), or any form of creamy sweets. Oh, there has to be some rice cakes. Every Filipino knows that this is the real noche Buena and a whole lot more. After all, feasts like this happen only once a year (plus the barangay fiesta, town fiesta, and every family member’s birthday)That noche Buena of simple pansit, cake and water is not noche Buena. That’s a little step up from a regular meal.

DTI Secretary Roque clarified that she wasn’t referring to a lavish noche Buena. But noche Buena is by nature, although not possibly lavish, is far from meager and modest. What’s the point of the noche Buena if it’s just a little step up from your regular Sunday dinner? If we go down that route, we would be admitting that we have gone down the deepest doldrums of development. That’s so Unfilipino. Filipinos party no matter what. We sing videoke in funerals. We exchange jokes during strong typhoons. We would pop open bottles of liquor for the simplest of reasons.

This is in the same tune with that P 20 worth of rice that I love to make fun of. They tried to make it artificially real by making P20 rice available in Kadiwa stores, only for indigent families in the most poverty-stricken provinces, which includes Camarines Sur. Where is the nearest Kadiwa store anyway?

I get it. The government just wants to make us citizens feel better with optimism. Don’t worry, we know how to make ourselves feel better.

Psalm 52:8: “But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;”