i had a classmate who reported about the creation of indigenized spaces in our geography class. people who live in other countries tend to "own" a particular area where they would typically meet their fellow migrants and recreate their indigenous culture. sort of an enclave. here, the filipinos have lucky plaza, the myanmarese/burmese have peninsula plaza, indians have their little india, and so on.
with the conduct of masses in migrants' local languages, the church also becomes a sort of indigenized spaces. and with the simbang gabi, the pinoy's "home away from home" becomes more prominent.
i went to the catholic church of christ the king in ang mo kio for the second simbang gabi here. unlike yesterday's experience, finding this church was easier because it was just across the road from the bus stop.
not all churches have simbang gabi. every night, there are 3 churches in the entire country which pinoys in sg can choose from. hence, one can expect overflowing people in all these churches, just like simbang gabi back home. and aside from the lay ministers and altar servers, almost everyone in church is pinoy. i learned at the latter part of the mass that the philippine ambassador to sg was even there together with the other embassy personnel.
the mass starts at 8 and we were already in church at 740 per puno na sa baba pagdating namin.
so they opened the gallery on the second floor which was also filled in just a matter of seconds.
the choir was rehearsing when we came in. they sang mostly tagalog songs which elicited that poignant feeling that i always have when christmas comes.
and just like any pinoy gathering, there's food! this is how the queues look like. and i just took one area of the church grounds. sa buong paligid ng simbahan, ganito pa rin ang itsura. they served porridge, bread and juice. we didnt join this fun part though because we also had porridge before going to church.
i love pinoy christmas. and i love the fact that we also have pinoy christmas here.
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