Traditions From Afar -- Long After They've Settled In The Puget Sound Area, Many Immigrants Still Reach Back To Their Native Lands For The Christmas Spirit

It began 400 years ago, with nine days of Christmas services that started at 4 a.m. so that farmers who woke at dawn and fishermen who'd spent all night at sea could attend.

To many Filipino-American Catholics, "Simbang Gabi" - Tagalog for "night Mass" - is as much a part of Christmas as twinkly lights and candy canes. This year, for the first time, they have brought the tradition to Seattle as a way to remember their roots and renew familiar customs.

The Simbang Gabi celebration began Dec. 16 with a parade of children bearing star-shaped red-paper lanterns through Immaculate Conception Church in Seattle's Central Area. Each night since, a different church has hosted the community for Mass and carols in the Tagalog language.

"It makes me remember my childhood," said Maurice Origenes, a pediatrician and church deacon who came to the United States from the Philippines 43 years ago. "It's a tradition that came from the Spaniards. I remember being very sleepy those early mornings when I was a little boy. Now we do it in the evening, because most of us aren't farmers and fishermen. But we try to do it as nearly like our fathers and grandfathers as possible."

Filipino Americans aren't the only ethnic group in Seattle re-introducing old ways of looking at Christmas. It's a result of merging cultures and fears that something spiritual is being lost in the mix.

Mexican Americans celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the answer to an earlier culture clash, and Las Posadas, a Latin-infused reenactment of the search by Mary and Joseph for shelter on that first Christmas Eve.

Cambodian Christians decorate their churches with lighted stars made of translucent paper stretched over a bamboo frame and gather for a communal Christmas dinner that features their favorite curries.

Ethiopian immigrants gather at church to sing "Desta Taliam" ("Joy to the World") and other carols translated into their Amharic language.

And many African Americans say that Kwanzaa, the seven-day nonreligious celebration that starts tomorrow, allows them to look at Christmas with more African eyes.

This year's Simbang Gabi celebration was initiated after the late Catholic Archbishop Thomas Murphy indicated he wanted Filipino parishioners to have a festival celebrating their religious heritage, said Veronica Barber, director of Asian Pacific Affairs for the archdiocese. About 89 percent of the 50,000 Filipinos in Washington are Catholic.

Church leaders chose Simbang Gabi because of its deep roots in the community and because it leads to a more spiritual Christmas. "It calls people to get their shopping done early so they can concentrate on the real meaning of Christmas," Barber said. "Once you start the novena (the series of nine Masses) you don't have time to be in the shopping malls."

Archbishop Alexander Brunett, Murphy's successor, helped celebrate the first Simbang Gabi Mass.

The Hispanic celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the clearest examples of the religious adaptation that occurs when cultures mix.

Tradition says the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian convert, Juan Diego, in December 1531, 10 years after the brutal conquest of Mexico by Spain. It was a time of lost hope and apprehension for the Indians.

She was an emissary from the Spaniards' Catholic religion, but she showed herself to the downtrodden Indians. She spoke the Indians' Nahuatl language, and she had dark skin like theirs. She wore a gown the blue-green color reserved for the supreme god of their ancestors, and a sash around her waist indicating she was pregnant. Because her message seemed aimed directly at them, many Indians soon converted.

For many of the 150,000 Hispanic Americans in the Seattle area, Guadalupe's feast day, Dec. 12, is a sign Christmas is around the corner, said Esther Bazan of the Seattle Archdiocese's Office of Hispanic Affairs. "She's pregnant and we wait for Christmas with her."

Las Posadas helps keep the momentum going through Christmas, Bazan said.

The Hispanic-Catholic version of Las Posadas is like a nine-day Christmas-caroling party. Groups go from house to house singing traditional songs depicting Mary and Joseph asking for lodging. The evenings end with traditional foods, like tamales, and pinatas full of candy for the children.

A one-night version of the tradition has been adopted in Seattle by an ecumenical group of Protestant churches in the University District, who use it to raise money for agencies serving homeless people.

Cambodian refugees used to gather to celebrate a communal Christmas full of old traditions when they first arrived here in the 1970s, after the war in Southeast Asia.

Now there are about 500 Cambodian Christians in this area, and "they want to be with their families on Christmas Day," said the Rev. Radha Manickam, who works with the Conservative Baptist Mission to the Americas. On the weekend, members of Cambodian congregations in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Lynden will travel to Vancouver, B.C., to celebrate with an American tradition - a potluck dinner.

Ethiopian immigrants, too, have mingled their traditions with Western Christmas customs.

"We used to follow the Orthodox calendar," said the Rev. Berhanu Feleke, pastor of Bethel Ethiopian Church. "But now we celebrate similar to Europeans. It doesn't matter the date, just that we're celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ. We want the children to emphasize that and sing the birth-of-Jesus songs."

Many African Americans have begun celebrating Kwanzaa, a 30-year-old spiritual - but not religious - holiday with roots in West Africa. Kwanzaa is a time to reflect on seven principles, one for each day of the celebration - unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

"To me, it's uniquely connected with Christmas," said Bert Johnson, urban-mission coordinator at University Presbyterian Church. "It symbolizes community, which is a pillar of the African tradition. Our history here has been so scarred and maligned, starting with slavery and the disintegration of the family that resulted from it. This makes Christmas a meaningful time to come together and celebrate who we are as a people."

The blending of traditions can take time, and more recent immigrants will probably need more time to become comfortable enough to share their traditions with the community, said Jan Ellichman of the Language Institute for Refugees at University Presbyterian.

"Most of the groups I work with are so new here they have very little English," Ellichman said, "not even enough to communicate to us what their traditions are. Often they are older people who are struggling just to get by. And they're poor. I think it takes a while - a generation, even - to build traditions. It can't be done overnight."

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