Maligayang Pasko! a Filipino Christmas

"Maligayang Pasko!" 

Merry Christmas, Filipino style!

 

Christmas season is in full swing! It's such a perfect time to inject some familial heritage into the festivities, and keep Mag tapped into her roots between visits with Kam's side of the family.

Of course, to truly embrace Christmas, Filipino style, we're about 3 months behind! Yep, that's right: in Philippines, the Christmas season encompasses the final FOUR months of the year! My Midwestern tendency, upon hearing this, is to imagine the cause is the shorter days/longer nights of the season. But we can't forget that, being so near the equator, the duration of daylight in the Philippine Islands varies by only about an hour between the longest night of the year and the shortest night of the year.

So why do they do it, then, if not to escape the darkness of the long nights of the season? No one in the family has any idea... but is sure sounds fun!

Well, here in the good ole U.S. of A., we can't incorporate a 4-month celebration into our current lifestyle. But our family has managed to enjoy some of Kam's fondest memories of childhood Christmases in Philippines, beginning with PAROL, or Christmas lanterns, which seem to be popping up everywhere this year (like here and here).

photo attribution: Keith Bacongo

In Philippines, these Christmas lanterns can be small and simple, or enormous and elaborate. We made a paper version that children grow up making at home. Since Kam couldn't quite recall the how-to of homemade parol all these decades later, we followed these very user-friendly youtube directions to recreate the memories.

We made it into a family project, each person working on one "arm" of the star, with good results!

Of course, no self-respecting Filipino celebration would be complete without a FEAST! Traditionally, lechon (a whole roasted pig) would be served.

photo attribution: Arcade

Since we had just had lechon at Thanksgiving, we went a little more low key for our pre-Christmas Filipino feast. Our local Filipino grocer supplied beef and chicken empanadas (my fave!) and puto (steamed rice mini cakes). We made an enchilada-esque dish that was Kam's mom's recipe, and the pièce de résistance: BIBINGKA!

photo attribution: Roberto Verzo

Bibingka is a Filipino Christmas cake, made with rice flour and coconut milk. It can be baked directly in a ceramic baking dish, or baked in a dish lined with banana leaves. Because this was our first time making binbingka, we decided to go all in, and baked in the leaves. We combined elements of each of these three recipes (one, two, three), to come up with this version:

(click recipe for printable pdf version)

I hope you enjoyed this little peak into Christmas in Philippines. We had such a wonderful time celebrating Kam's roots this week that we are planning to incorporate more traditions into our festivities on Christmas day!

Wherever you are, and however you're celebrating, I hope it is just as joyous! Merry Christmas!

Love learning about "Christmas in Different Lands"? Head to the Multicultural Kid Blogs world tour... so many fun traditions, so little time!

Kodomo no Hi: Koinobori

This week leading up to Kodomo no Hi has felt like a mini adventure. In the past, our cultural activities have primarily been Western-focused, with a little Philippines mixed in here and there. Spending some time getting to know more about Japan has been far more exciting than I would have guessed. It's not that France and Germany aren't exciting; it's just that they're so familiar. Learning about a country that is completely foreign to us feels like meeting the World all over again. Love it!

So what's next, after our Japanese color fun? Koinobori, the koi-shaped windsocks! While we didn't follow the traditional color scheme (that I mentioned here), we did make our own construction paper koinobori, which we will display outside on Kodomo no Hi. I understand that in Japan, koinobori might be flown for weeks, but the Midwestern spring weather has kept ours safely locked indoors until the big day.

We will also be making this easy variation of mochi, but filling with chocolate rather than red bean paste... or perhaps swinging by our local Asian grocery to find the real deal, depending on how the week goes. On verra...

Anyone else celebrating Kodomo no Hi with their students or children?

Tell us about it!

Glossary:

On verra. = (French) We'll see.

Multi-Lingual Shamrock Coloring Sheet FREEBIE!

I love FREEBIES, don't you?! If you are looking for a quick St. Paddy's Day themed activity for your dual language immersion kiddos (or any kids!), then here is a little FREEBIE you might enjoy:

Shamrock Coloring Sheets in FRENCH, SPANISH, and GERMAN

Kids love to color! 

Get them practicing their second language while doing something they enjoy!

To download these FREE coloring pages, head to my store at TpT.

What is TpT? How much do I love it? Why should you join? 

Read all about TpT and its 80,000+ free resources here!

Profitez-en!

Did you enjoy this activity? These coloring pages are part of my larger foreign language practice packets in a St. Patrick's Day theme, available at TpT. These 15-page packets include practice in the basic vocabulary of: colors, numbers (0-10), sizes, and parts of the body. Available in French, Spanish, and German.

Glossary:

Profitez-en! (French) = Enjoy!

von der Bibliothek: "Ollie and Moon," Plus a Craft

In between travels, one of our favorite ways to explore the world is through books. If the book is von der Bibliothek, all the better! A current house fave, from our local library, is Random House's Ollie and Moon, by Diane Kredensor and Sandra Kress.

When Kredensor and Kress team up their talents, quite a unique style ensues! Kredensor superimposes her adorable stylized characters atop Kress's photographs of Paris. They add some French words and landmarks, a cute and simple plot, et voilà! A lively romp around the City of Light, without even getting off the couch!

 

Make Your Own Ollie and Moon-esque Story-Telling Set

After reading the book trente-six fois, and watching the cute video a couple more times, we just had to make an activity out of Ollie and Moon. Thanks to Kredensor and Kress's inspiration, only a craft  would suffice for this project! Don't panic: it's an easy one.

Etes-vous prêtes? Okay. Grab these things:

• a few old magazines or calendars
• a couple of sheets of white paper
• some markers
• scissors and glue

Got 'em? Okay, now have students draw some fun characters, cut them out, and superimpose them onto pictures from the magazines and calendars. Have them tell a story as they present their chef-d'oeuvre to the class.

You can go as big or as simple with this as time and imagination allow. Around here... well, let's just say Mag wasn't feeling the cutting/drawing so much, but she knocked the story-telling out of the park.

Here are some of the scenes that our characters, Snowy der Scheeman and Kingy King, visited while we narrated.

Et vous? Any favorite "destination" children's books? Do share!

Glossary

von der Bibliothek (German) = from the library
trente-six fois (French) = literally "36 times," a French expression for "many times"
Etes-vous prêtes? (French) = Are you ready?
chef-d'oeuvre (French) = work of art
der Schneeman (German) = the snowman
Et vous? (French) = And you?

This post will be linked up to "Tell Me a Tale Tuesday" at Keeping Life Creative.