Remittance Gift-Giving Is A Symbol of Love and Gratitude

The Christmas tradition of gift-giving goes back to the first Christmas when the biblical Magi or three kings visited Jesus after his birth bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This ties gift-giving to the reason for the Christmas season, that God gave a gift to humanity that he sent his son Jesus for our salvation.

Jesus’ birth was a gift to the world and the Magi celebrated this, traveled miles upon miles to show their gratitude and love recognizing the greatness of what his birth meant and what was to come.

To millions of Christians the Nativity is standard decoration in their homes each Christmas because it is the Holy Family that helped to make Jesus’ destiny possible. Saint Joseph and Mother Mary, Jesus’ earthly parents, played the important role or nurturing Jesus and providing for his earthly needs.

We see that family is an essential part of the Christmas narrative.

Remittances and strong family bonds
Our Filipino tradition of sending money remittances (or Christmas aguinaldos) to our loved ones in the Philippines ultimately is rooted in our strong family bonds.

Family is central in Filipino culture. Of course, making a generalization that this holds true in all cultures is a fair one.

But cross culturally, how the different cultures express family bonds vary. Sending remittances in our culture is one example, but not entirely unique to Filipinos. Indians, Mexicans, Chinese also heavily practice remittance gift-giving.  What these ethnicities have in common with Filipinos is strong family bonds as well as a massive diaspora, which is the second reason why remittances is a common and important cultural expression among these ethnicities.

For a better understanding of remittance gift-giving, it precedes the Filipino immigration experience and goes back to the family bonds, the family unit firmly established in the Philippines.

Typically, in the Philippines, resources are shared among family members. It is not just the father and mother who are financial providers. It’s also common that an older brother and older sister would make sacrifices to help sustain the family’s needs and obligations. In a household where money doesn’t flow as easily, sacrifices must be made. An older sibling(s) would play a “de facto parental” role, give up his opportunity for an education and instead work to help a younger sibling attain an education.

And typically, it is that younger sibling with an education who will immigrate to another country like the U.S. as a professional. But that younger sibling has not forgotten that his opportunity for a more financially secure life was not a result of his own doing. He remembers the family members who’ve helped make this possible.

It could be that his father or mother worked several months or years as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) as an electrician or maid separated from the family. That in his father’s absence, it was his older brother who did the myriad things a father would do with him. This he remembers.

It could be that a single mother raising three children would have help from her sisters to babysit. An aunty who came over regularly with comfort food like kare-kare, spent time with him while his mother finished work at her second job, and pressed him to complete his homework – this, the Filipino living abroad remembers.

In the same family, it could be that his older sister started working at 16-years old to help their mother meet payments on monthly bills. That older sister would also take him to the mall, buy him shoes, buy him school supplies, keep him laughing and happy even as they faced financial hardship. This he remembers.

All of the sacrifices, the struggles, the joyful Christmases that the entire family spent together during Noche Buena and the aguinaldos he received – he remembers.

This is what inspires many Filipinos living outside of the Philippines to continue the tradition of remitting money to loved ones back home.

Our culturally tight family bonds and the sacrifices our family members made for us are at the heart of remittances – which are symbolic gifts of love and gratitude.

In the Christmas season, we reflect on God’s gift in the Christ child, the gifts of the Magi to Jesus, and the Holy Family who helped Jesus fulfill his destiny.

It is similar to our own families, our own experiences, that it took God’s help, our parent’s help and in some cases the entire family’s help for us to live out our destinies.

We give during Christmas because we’ve received. Not necessarily gifts wrapped in a colorful box exchanged during the holiday, but in many other ways that we have not forgotten.

The management and staff at the Hawaii Filipino Chronicle wish all of you, a very Merry Christmas, one filled with love and memories to last a lifetime.