Countdown to Christmas: the Nine-Day Tradition

Tonia Macias grew up in Mexico celebrating Las Posadas, a nine-day tradition that consisted of re-enacting the biblical scene where Joseph and Mary look for shelter. Through a musical call-and-response, they would sing for permission to go inside the church door, and people inside would turn them away. To this day, the tradition ends with the doors opening and the neighbors sharing dinner.

Today Macias, a parishioner of 17 years at , has adapted her childhood tradition of Las Posadas for Simbang Gabi, a nine-day novena that comes from the Philippines.

About 10 parishes within the Diocese of San Jose offer novenas leading up to the midnight Mass on Christmas. St. Elizabeth offers a special morning Mass followed by breakfast, and holds its Mass in the evenings with a reception afterward. 

"It's a beautiful tradition," said Macias, who usually goes for Mass each morning at 8:30 a.m. but arrives at 6 a.m. during Simbang Gabi for the holiday service. On Monday morning, she had already completed her fifth day. In Guadalajara, the city of her traditional roots, Baby Jesus would not arrive with gifts for children if they had not completed the nine-day Posada, she was told when she was little.

But for the most part, she said, the nine days are a way to prepare spiritually for Christmas. Others refer to it as a spiritual cleansing.

"It's a renewal of our Catholic faith in God, getting ourselves ready for the coming of the Savior," said Father Norman Segovia, pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.

On Sunday night, the fifth night of Simbang Gabi, it was standing-room-only at the church, and not everyone fit, overflowing outside the double doors. One young woman fainted and was taken outside for air.

St. John offers an evening novena, because the time is more convenient, said Father Segovia, who said they started out with morning services.

"We found out people found it hard to participate," he said. "We've modified it through the years."

He also found that people had no time to socialize in the morning. The evening reception is a way to build the community.  

"The socialization part is very important," he said over soup at Pavalkis Hall, where tables were provided for people to sit down.

During Simbang Gabi, there's some sharing of resources. Priests from the diocese are invited to lead the service at different parishes. Churchgoers who missed the novena one night at St. John might go to St. Elizabeth the next morning.

"Dual citizens," Tina De Los Santos, the Filipino-American coordinator at St. Elizabeth said in reference to the Filipinos who observe Simbang Gabi at both churches. "They go here. They go there."

One issue that remains unresolved is the practice of Mass at the mall. In the Philippines, it is not uncommon to have a chapel built into a shopping center. In fact, Segovia said he goes to church at the mall when he is in the Philippines.

Season's Marketplace at Landess, a shopping center that opened this summer catering to Filipino customers, wanted to provide services for its tenants, said Gabrielle Ramos, operations consultant.  Ayala, the corporation that owns the center, also develops malls in the Philippines.

An unoccupied suite was designated for novena. But the Diocese of San Jose did not give permission for the Eucharist, according to Ramos. Father Ives Aniban, who modified the Mass, said he appreciated any way he could to bring the presence of God there.

"It's marvelous," he said. "Usually, every night it's full." Having a Mass at the mall gives customers and employees a choice to drop in, he said.

Milpitas Patch contacted the diocese for clarification. Monsignor Francis Cilia, the vicar general, did not have knowledge of the matter, said Roberta Ward, from the Diocese of San Jose.

But she said permission would not have been granted, because Mass takes place in church, she said. 

"Mass is Mass, and it doesn't take place in shopping centers," she said. "These kinds of things are really serious."

There are plenty of churches in Santa Clara County that offer the nine-day novena, she said, so there isn't a need to hold Mass at the mall.

In the Philippines, the traditional morning Mass begins closer to 4 a.m. and ends with eating sweet rice desserts sold by vendors outside the church.