Breaking Tradition: a Mini-Ethnography

Breaking Tradition

(or a newly found tradition)

We always spend Christmas Day at my uncle’s house since he and his family moved there about five years ago. Before that we used to celebrate Christmas at my grandmother’s, but after having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, we decided to spend it elsewhere, thinking about all the clean up we were going to do in that big house.

This year, we decided to spend Christmas Eve at Tagaytay after a very spontaneous trip there one Monday afternoon with the whole family. At first, we were supposed to spend it at Boracay, then we thought it would be better if we went out of the country to celebrate. So, we decided on Hong Kong. After a few months, the adults changed their minds, saying it’s too expensive and stuff like that. They considered the Marriot Hotel in Resorts World Manila, Camp John Hay in Baguio or Taal Vista in Tagaytay. With much arguing and debating, we ended up in Taal Vista in Tagaytay.

The day of celebration started off with a breakfast picnic at Picnic Grove. I wasn’t fond of the place since it was all cramped up and horse poo filled the air. My mom and her siblings have placed The Picnic Grove at a high pedestal since they come there often as kids, that when we got there, I was very disappointed... And hungry. When everyone was already there, we rented a table, got out our picnic stuff from the car and started eating away. As always, the foods my mom, my aunts and my cousin prepared were very delicious and was consumed within minutes. Like my mom used to say, “Parang dinaana lang ng bagyo.” Our picnic was filled with chatter and laughter, like we haven’t seen each other in months when in reality we’ve only been apart for a few weeks. The little kids played at the field with my brother while the older boys talked and us, the girls watched and made small talk, because we aren’t really that close to be talking about heavy stuff. I leave that to my kuyas. My grandma demanded for a toilet, like she...