Christmas Carolers

Caroling is a part of the Filipino Christmas tradition. Celebrating Christmas with the traditional Christmas caroling, especially the children - going from house to house singing Christmas carols. Makeshift instruments include tamburines made with tansans (aluminum bottle caps) strung on a piece of wire. With the traditional chant of "Namamasko po!", these carolers wait expectantly for the homeowners to reward them with coins. After being rewarded, the carolers thank the owner by singing "Thank you, thank you, ang babait ninyo (you are so kind), thank you!". When i was a kid, me, my friends and my cousins had fun doing christmas caroling. We visits every houses in our neighborhood and sing christmas songs. Doesn't matters, out of tune or not! Sometimes, we need to wake up in the middle of the night because we hear, carolers who are singing in front of our house. There are also group of carolers visit houses to sing Christmas songs. Some of these carolers raise funds for less fortunate families through caroling, while others are simply doing it for the joy of singing. Some carolers may be a group of friends, or belong to the same community or civic organization. Others may be family relatives who have made it a tradition to sing together as a family. Today, only a few doing Christmas caroling and i miss the fun of those years.