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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
MISA DE GALLO: LET THE FINAL 9 DAYS COUNTDOWN BEGIN
Traditionally, Christmas Day in the Philippines is ushered in by the nine-day dawn masses that start on December 16. Known as the Misa de Gallo (Rooster's Mass) in the traditional Spanish and in Filipino as Simbang Gabi, or "Night Mass", this novena of Masses is the most important Filipino Christmas tradition.
These nine dawn Masses are also considered as a Novena by the Catholic and Aglipayan faithfuls. This refers to the Roman Catholic and Aglipayan practice of performing nine days of private or public devotion to obtain special graces.
In some parishes, the Simbang Gabi begins as early as four o'clock in the morning. Going to mass this early for nine consecutive days is meant to show the churchgoer's devotion and faith as well as to heighten anticipation for the Nativity of Jesus. In traditional Filipino belief, however, completing the novena is also supposed to mean that God would grant the devotee's special wish or favour.
After hearing Mass, Filipino families partake of traditional Philippine Christmastime delicacies, either during breakfast at home or immediately outside the church, where they are sold. Vendors offer a wealth of native delicacies, including bibingka (rice flour and egg based cake, cooked using coals on top of and under the pastry), puto bumbong (a purple sticky rice delicacy which is steamed in bamboo tubes, with brown sugar and shredded dried coconut meat served as condiments), salabat (hot ginger tea) and chokolate (thick Spanish cocoa). In some Aglipayan churches, after the mass everybody is invited to partake the "painit" (after mass snacks of delicacies with hot coffee or tsokolate) at the house of the sponsor of the mass.
In recent times, even the Evangelical Christians, and other independent Christian Churches have started holding services in the early mornings like the ones that are being done by the Catholics and some Mainline Protestant
Misa de Gallo is the Spanish phrase for Midnight mass, more literally translated as "Rooster's Mass".
It is said that the "Rooster's Mass" owes its name to the idea that a rooster would have been among the first to witness the birth of Jesus, and thus be the one to announce it.
In most Spanish speaking countries, Misa de gallo entails a typical midnight mass, starting at around 12:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
The custom in the Philippines is that it is a novena of dawn Masses, usually beginning at around 3:00-4:30 a.m., and running from December 16 up to December 24. This practise started during the Spanish colonial period when priests held early dawn masses for the farmers who wanted to attend Christmas mass but could not leave their fields. These masses were held before daybreak, hence the Filipino term "Simbang Gabi" (Midnight Mass). Even today, Filipinos wake up very early in the morning to attend the Misa de Gallo as an expression of devotion to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary. A commonly-held belief is that if an individual completes the nine consecutive days of the Simbang Gabi, the act would merit a wish made by the devotee being granted.
One of the customs related to the Philippine Misa de Gallo is the selling of traditional Philippine food, such as puto bumbong (a purple colored rice pastry, seasoned with grated--coconut and brown sugar), tsokolate (a hot cocoa drink), bibingka (flour and egg cakes cooked on top and under), and salabat, or ginger tea, which are sold by vendors outside churches to the faithful.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misa_del_GalloSaturday, December 12, 2009
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THIS IS IT on ALL SOULS DAY!
Danced his moves and sang his MUSIC and have been touched by its words and message!
Having promised to myself to watch his "last movie", I DID!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
IS IT or IS IT NOT?
Reuters – The Turin Shroud is shown in this August 1978 file photo in negative version. An Italian scientist says …
Rightmost is the REPRODUCTION
By Philip Pullella – Mon Oct 5, 11:30 am ET
ROME (Reuters) – An Italian scientist says he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, a feat that he says proves definitively that the linen some Christians revere as Jesus Christ's burial cloth is a medieval fake.
The shroud, measuring 14 feet, 4 inches by 3 feet, 7 inches bears the image, eerily reversed like a photographic negative, of a crucified man some believers say is Christ.
"We have shown that is possible to reproduce something which has the same characteristics as the Shroud," Luigi Garlaschelli, who is due to illustrate the results at a conference on the para-normal this weekend in northern Italy, said on Monday.
A professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia, Garlaschelli made available to Reuters the paper he will deliver and the accompanying comparative photographs.
The Shroud of Turin shows the back and front of a bearded man with long hair, his arms crossed on his chest, while the entire cloth is marked by what appears to be rivulets of blood from wounds in the wrists, feet and side.
Carbon dating tests by laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona in 1988 caused a sensation by dating it from between 1260 and 1390. Sceptics said it was a hoax, possibly made to attract the profitable medieval pilgrimage business.
But scientists have thus far been at a loss to explain how the image was left on the cloth.
Garlaschelli reproduced the full-sized shroud using materials and techniques that were available in the middle ages.
They placed a linen sheet flat over a volunteer and then rubbed it with a pigment containing traces of acid. A mask was used for the face.
PIGMENT, BLOODSTAINS AND SCORCHES
The pigment was then artificially aged by heating the cloth in an oven and washing it, a process which removed it from the surface but left a fuzzy, half-tone image similar to that on the Shroud. He believes the pigment on the original Shroud faded naturally over the centuries.
They then added blood stains, burn holes, scorches and water stains to achieve the final effect.
The Catholic Church does not claim the Shroud is authentic nor that it is a matter of faith, but says it should be a powerful reminder of Christ's passion.
One of Christianity's most disputed relics, it is locked away at Turin Cathedral in Italy and rarely exhibited. It was last on display in 2000 and is due to be shown again next year.
Garlaschelli expects people to contest his findings.
"If they don't want to believe carbon dating done by some of the world's best laboratories they certainly won't believe me," he said.
The accuracy of the 1988 tests was challenged by some hard-core believers who said restorations of the Shroud in past centuries had contaminated the results.
The history of the Shroud is long and controversial.
After surfacing in the Middle East and France, it was brought by Italy's former royal family, the Savoys, to their seat in Turin in 1578. In 1983 ex-King Umberto II bequeathed it to the late Pope John Paul.
The Shroud narrowly escaped destruction in 1997 when a fire ravaged the Guarini Chapel of the Turin cathedral where it is held. The cloth was saved by a fireman who risked his life.
Garlaschelli received funding for his work by an Italian association of atheists and agnostics but said it had no effect on his results.
"Money has no odor," he said. "This was done scientifically. If the Church wants to fund me in the future, here I am."
THIS IS FROM YAHoO NEWS!