Abstract
This paper discusses Filipino Christmas (Pasko) celebrations through select rituals and traditions representing the widely diverse regional and ethnic groups in the Philippines. Considering Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concepts of Play and Festive, such practices are sorted according to performativity: the musical re-enactments of the journey of Joseph and Mary to the stable (panunuluyan, panarit, Pastores, Villancicos), gift-giving (Monito-Monita, pamamasko), novena masses (Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo) and the Christmas Midnight Dinner (Noche Buena). In highlighting nonpurposive rationality and performativity in the concept of Play and the suspension of time and diversion of subjectivities leading to common practices in Festive, such Gadamerian interpretation explains how Filipinos are taken out by the “Christmas phenomenon.” With such intense “playing,” one finds an overlap of Filipino life’s religious, aesthetic, economic, and social layers, thereby stirring a dialogue that prompts historical reflection on deeper values as a community.
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Notes
- 1.
In Truth and Method (Wahrheit und Methode), Gadamer traces the history of hermeneutics from Schleiermacher and deemed that this long history brought forth the so-called “fusion of horizons”—something that is formed through an art of agreement (Ormiston & Schrift, 1990). This particular thrust of Gadamer opens hermeneutics as a meaningful communication of perspectives and a deeply inspiring motivation towards solidarity.
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Albela, F.A. (2023). A Gadamerian Exploration of Play and Festive in Pasko. In: Hongladarom, S., Joaquin, J.J., Hoffman, F.J. (eds) Philosophies of Appropriated Religions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5191-8_16
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