Dauisanons celebrate the Christmas eve mass under an Acacia tree. (CDN PHOTO/ SANTINO BUNACHITA)
DAUIS, BOHOL — Nothing beats Christmas at home.
This was how 31-year- old Eden Olango felt as she celebrated Christmas with her family and son — their first in two years.
Eden, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), has been working as a nanny in the Middle East. While she took care of a clients child, her own son grew up without his mom around.
“It’s not easy because I always miss home and my family. But I’m doing this for the sake of my son,” she told Cebu Daily News in Bisaya.
Eden, a solo parent, left her son to the care of her mother.
She went home to Bohol early this month and made sure to complete the nine dawn masses at their parish in Dauis – the Our Lady of Assumption.
“I wish that my son grows up a good and God-fearing person. I also wish for my family to have a comfortable life. I don’t ask to be rich, I just want my family to be happy,” she said.
Eden and hundreds of other Dauisanons ushered Christmas last Thursday with a Holy Mass under a giant Acacia tree next to the church.
The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu last year left the parish’s shrine in ruins. Until now, the church is closed and undergoing preliminary phases of rehabilitation.
Since October 2013, parishioners have been celebrating Mass under the Acacia tree behind the parish convent near the church.
With only a few seats in the area, most churchgoers bring their own stools or stand.
But this didn’t matter to those who fill the area every Sunday. During the dawn masses, or Misa de Gallo, the number didn’t dwindle.
During the Christmas Eve mass, Fr. Victor Bompat reminded the parishioners to look back at the first Christmas in Bethlehem.
It was simple and not extravagant, unlike the way many people celebrate Christmas in recent years, he said.
Mary and Joseph did not even have supper. There was no loud music and Jesus didn’t have new clothes, something to reflect on how we should really celebrate Christmas, said Fr. Bompat in his homily in Bisaya.
He encouraged the churchgoers to share their blessings — food and their possessions — with the needy and especially, the poor who can’t experience a feast even during Christmas.
“Si Jesus nagpakatawo sa yanong paagi. Nagpakatawo siya para maluwas ta. (Jesus Christ was born in a simple manger. He was born to save us.) That is more than enough reason for us to be happy this Christmas,” he said.