IT is the day before the start of the Simbang Gabi. Today all over the land, people will be preparing to wake up before dawn tomorrow to go to church, perhaps stand in the churchyard when there is no more space inside the church to be part of the first mass of the nine-day Simbang Gabi which will culminate on Christmas Eve.
For months now, many religious gatherings have been cancelled because of the COVID-19. Early this year, there was no Visita Iglesia when people visit seven churches during Holy Week. There were no Santacruzans, no town fiesta celebrations.
There were no church services until a few weeks ago and then only up to 10 percent of people allowed inside, later raised to 30 percent. Cemeteries were closed for four days to avoid the gathering of masses of people for All Saints’ Day. There will be no Traslacion, when hundreds of thousands of devotees traditionally accompany the image of the Black Nazarene from the Luneta back to its shrine in Quiapo Church.
And now it is the Christmas season. For a while it was feared that the Simbang Gabi too would be cancelled, but COVID-19 infections in the country have sufficiently gone down, so that only four local government units – Davao City, Makati City, Mankayan town in Benguet, and Baguio City – remain high-risk areas in the country.
Thus in most parts of the country there will be Simbang Gabi before dawn tomorrow. But the usual health protocols must be strictly followed. All must wear face masks. They must maintain proper distancing – about a meter between people. The government issued this basic restriction to stop the virus from spreading but in the end, it is the people who must enforce it to help themselves.
The people must keep this in mind as they prepare today for the first Simbang Gabi starting at 4 a.m. We are glad that the situation in the Philippines has sufficiently improved – in contrast with what is now happening in the United States where deaths have reached 3,000 a day.
This cherished tradition of Simbang Gabi thus continues since it began in 1669, a great manifestation of piety of those early Filipinos who went to church in the early morning while it was still dark, before they started working in their fields in the morning.
This year the Simbang Gabi may also be a manifestation of thanksgiving that our country is now emerging from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
