The End Of One, The Beginning Of Another?

Today, December 31 (Manila time) is the day of the Holy Family of Jesus, Joseph & Mary according to the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. In the Philippines, the only Roman Catholic country in Asia, the interjection ‘susmaryosep!’ actually has the names of the Holy Family but in a different order: Jesus, Mary, Joseph. The order has significance in Philippine culture, which is familial and, yes, matriarchal: At home, a mother is more important (and more powerful) than a father. The mother mentioned before the father; I don’t know about St Joseph, but as a father, I don’t mind.

I don’t mind feeling less important because I feel that, actually, to the Filipinos neither the mother nor the father is important – the family is. That is why divorce is anathema to our culture and will always be so; you can sculpt that on stone.

Full essay

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 11:11 pm and is filed under creative photography, creative thinking, creative writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.