The Filipino, like the Porto Rican and all others who have lived under Spanish rule, look upon Christmas as a great religious festival, and one that requires very special attention.  On Christmas eve the churches are open, and the coming of the great day is celebrated by a mass at midnight; and during all of Christmas day mass is held every hour, so that every one may have an opportunity to attend.  Even the popular Christmas customs among the people are nearly all of a religious character, for most of them consist of little plays or dramas founded upon the life of the Saviour.

These plays are called pastures, and are performed by bands of young men and women, and sometimes mere boys and girls, who go about from village to village and present their simple little plays to expectant audiences at every stopping-place.  The visit of the wise men, the flight into Egypt—­these and many other incidents as related in the Scriptures are acted in these pastores.

=New Year’s Day=

January 1

The custom of celebrating the first day of the year is a very ancient one.  The exchange of gifts, the paying of calls, the making of good resolutions for the new year and feasting often characterize the day.  The custom of ringing the church bells is of the widest extent.

The old-world custom of sitting up on New Year’s eve to see the old year out is still very common.

=EXTRACT FROM “SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COLONIES"=

The Century Magazine, July 1885

BY EDWARD EGGLESTON

New Year’s Day was celebrated among the New York Dutch by the calls of the gentlemen on their lady friends; it is perhaps the only distinctly Dutch custom that afterward came into widespread use in the United States.  New Year’s Day, and the church festivals kept alike by the Dutch and English, brought an intermission of labor to the New York slaves, who gathered in throngs to devote themselves to wild frolics.  The Brooklyn fields were crowded with them on New Year’s Day, at Easter, at Whitsuntide, or “Prixter,” as the Dutch called it, and on “San Claus Day”—­the feast of St. Nicholas.

=A CHINESE NEW YEAR’S IN CALIFORNIA=

BY H.H.

The Chinese in California have a week of holiday at their New Year’s in February, just as we do between the twenty-fifth of December and the first of January.

In the cities they make a fine display of fire-works.  They use barrels full of fire-crackers, and the Chinese boys do not fire them off, as the American boys do, a cracker at a time; they bring out a large box full, or a barrel full, and fire them off package after package, as fast as they can.

In Santa Barbara, where I was during the Chinese New Year’s of 1882, we heard the crackers long before we reached Chinatown.  After these stopped we went into the houses.  Every Chinese family keeps open house on New Year’s day all day long.  They set up a picture or an image of their god in some prominent place, and on a table in front of this they put a little feast of good things to eat.  Some are for an offering to the god and some are for their friends who call.  Everyone is expected to take something.