#CDNChristmas2020: Alone on Christmas

Pandemic prevents Boholana from spending holidays with family

Amon Avienido | Contributed Photo

There’s no place like home especially in celebrating special occasions.

Filipinos working far away from home always find a way to go back to celebrate the Holidays with the whole family.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things including the way families celebrate special events.

Amon Avienido, 34, from Bien Unido, Bohol and currently working in Mandaue City Hall is a typical Filipino worker who used to celebrate Christmas and New Year with her family.

Avienido is the fourth of five siblings. She belongs to the LGBT community and would prefer to be addressed as a woman. Her father, who’s from Barangay Alang-Alang in Mandaue City, died in 2007. Although they own a house in the said barangay, Avienido and his siblings literally grew up in Bohol.

Avienido had been working as an admin officer at the  Mandaue City Public Information Office for three years now. Because she failed to go home for the Holidays last year, her excitement to do it this Christmas and New Year doubled.

Then the pandemic hit.

Travel restrictions were put in place. With the strict guidelines imposed by the province to curtail the spread of COVID-19, traveling, even to neighboring islands was made almost impossible as individuals coming from other places would need to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

These unwelcome developments left Avienido with no choice but to remain in Cebu – far from home and her family – for the Holidays. The gifts that she had been planning to buy for her mother and siblings will remain unbought. Instead, she said she will just send money to her family in Bohol.

Avienido recalls that Christmas eve for their family is quite simple, with a simple “handa” prepared by their mother. Her mom would attend Christmas eve Mass while she and her siblings are usually left talking and laughing. They would fondly share childhood memories and would just laugh recalling their naughty escapades.

When their mother arrives, that’s when they would eat together and talk and laugh some more.

“Simple ra gyud, magrosaryo mi, mangaon, nya mag estorya, mangatawa, nya matulog. Simple ra jud pero lingaw,” said Avienido.

(Our celebration is very simple, we pray the rosary, eat together, talk, laugh, then we go to sleep.  It’s that simple.)

She said it was more fun during the New Year’s celebration as there is a disco in their barangay and they would make noise to welcome the New Year.

Now that her other siblings already have families of their own, they make it a point to get together on January 1.

For Avienido, even if they don’t have much food on their table, the simple gathering and banter with her family are moments she will always treasure. For her, those things spell the essence of Christmas.

Avienido said that this year, they will still celebrate Christmas and New Year together. Only this time, it would be done virtually.

Asked for her Christmas wish, Avienido said she is praying that everything will go back to normal so she can already celebrate special occasions with her family with laughter and banter filling the air.

Just like old times. /rcg