Filipinos honor the Simbang Gabi tradition in Penang

‘Simbang Gabi’ is a Filipino Christmas tradition consisting of 9-days of early morning Masses prior to Christmas. Bells, lights and lanterns adorn the church to welcome people to the Mass and after the Mass, they will gather around for some traditional food.

In Penang, instead of dawn, the Masses were held in the evening at 8.30PM at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows .

Fr Dominic Santhiyagu, the parish priest of City Parish, was happy to see that the Filipino community was able to retain to their Simbang Gabi tradition and said that this would give them a taste of home away from home.

“To me, this is a beautiful tradition, as I note the sacrifices they made – waking up so early and preparing food everyday. This tradition will create the need for more prayers and hence they will be more spiritually filled during Christmas. The Filipino here are in a foreign land and they have made a lot of sacrifices too,” said Fr Dominic.

A Filipino priest, Fr Conegundo Garganta, was specially invited by Fr Dominic to celebrate the Masses.

“The Simbang Gabi, being held in Penang, will help the Filipinos in Penang to minimize their home-sicknesses as this tradition means a lot to them.” said Fr Conegundo.

Hermie Camba, who has been living in Penang for over 10 years, and is the president of the Pinoy Support Group (PSG) had this to say.

“Simbang Gabi in Penang brings me the spirit of unity, compassion and joyfullness to our community. It reminds me of our culture and traditions on how we prepare ourselves spiritually for Christmas. I have seen the unity among the Filipinos during Simbang Gabi from the mass to the fellowship and I feel like we are one big family.”

Frederick Cartojana, 29 years old, a technician in Penang, and the chairperson of FCCP, who have been in Penang for four years, was very grateful to Fr Dominic for allowing them to live their Christmas tradition in Penang.

“It was an honour to the FCCP that we get to organize Simbang Gabi” he said, “I am over-whelmed that we, the Filipinos are able to bring up our tradition here in Penang, Malaysia.”

On the last day of Simbang Gabi (24 Dec.), the tradition of enacting the ‘Panuluyan’ was performed in place of the homily during the Mass. This is a short play depicting the couple, Mary and Joseph, searching for a place to stay to give birth to Jesus.