It’s the yuletide season: a season of loving and a season of sharing. To celebrate the coming of Christ, people nowadays, Christians and even non-Christians, hold gatherings or a party.
As a tradition, Filipinos hold gatherings not only with their families and relatives or friends but also in their workplace, church, school and other organizations they belong to.
The Deaf Lasallians in Ozamiz City celebrated the Students’ Christmas party on December 18, 2014. It was started with a lantern parade and a Mesa de Gallo held in the Arts Center early that morning. Hours later, students in primary and secondary level in their respective school and classrooms namely, BMSLS, IS, NHS, and SFTD enthusiastically prepared for the party itself.
Before I went to school, I was wondering what it would be like. I know it’s going to be different from last year and I’m sure that’s what the other students thought too. Surely, the younger students were more excited about receiving gifts and the foods.
When I arrived in school, my classmates and schoolmates already started playing some parlor games in the care of Ms. Yamie Fiestada along with the other LSVP volunteers. Among the games played were Trip to Jerusalem, Newspaper dance and others. As I looked on to watch, I also met some of the alumni and old friends. There were also parents and visitors. After the fun games, we headed back to our classroom to continue the program hosted by Ms. Rosevie Samarista. There were short and cute dance presentations rendered by the elementary, high school and some college students then after that, we prayed for the abundant meal we had at the table. I can say that the deaf students were really disciplined and well-mannered because they formed an accordingly line. There were no pushing and shoving. The foods were really plenty so, the students came to the table to grab some more again and again. Shortly, our teachers in Science and Math arrived. They were entertained by Ma’am Marecel Aljo and Ma’am Sarah Talibong. After everyone was full, we started our exchanging gifts. It was also fun and filled with joy because we had to describe our manito and manita in a Filipino Sign Language (FSL) manner. Some students had the same manito from last year, some were best friends, some were ex-lovers and some were enemies but you see, that was overlooked because it’s a time for them to reconcile, make amends and have peace between them. After all, we should “Give love on Christmas day” right? When the students’ exchanging gifts was done, we also gave our volunteer teachers gifts as a sign of our gratitude towards them for willingly teaching us. The program was ended with a prayer by Mr. Franzlin Banua. The teachers and LSVP volunteers went to the Arts Center at noon for their Teachers’ Christmas Party-but that’s another story. While they were away, we started cleaning the classroom. When it was already cleaned, we exchanged hugs, goodbyes and warm greetings for Christmas. We’ll surely miss each other because we won’t meet again for the next 18 days. Some of us stayed for a while to catch up with some friends then went home safely. - Ana Dominique Amores Limbaring (Deaf Writer) –oOo-
