"Noche Buena" - the Filipino midnight feast that came from colonialism

Many aspects of Filipino culture have Hispanic influences but "Noche Buena", a Christmas tradition celebrated the night before Christmas, is a tradition that colonizers used to... well, colonize.

I remember during big celebrations (Christmas, New Years, celebrating my sisters and her friends in a local Filipino pageant in Tunbridge Wells), we’d have a giant feast with a roasted pig as the centre piece. Guests would bring food they made - the orange Filipino spaghetti, the steamy scent of dinuguan, one of my favourite dishes adobo, leche flan - and place on a table for everyone to have an endless choice of things to eat. It would be so much, that the dishes I love would be my dinner for the next few weeks.

Food is a huge aspect of Filipino culture, rich in history, flavor, and variety. We celebrate food one of many ways but in light of the upcoming festivities, the night before Christmas we feast on a huge meal at midnight - a Filipino tradition known as noche buena.

What is “Noche Buena”?

The tradition was never taught to me, but we’d have rows and rows of Filipino dishes to eat after a midnight mass on Christmas Eve; so in a way, we celebrate noche buena without knowing it’s actually noche buena.

In Spanish, “noche buena” translates to “good night” but in the Philippines, we interpret it as “the night of goodness”. As aforementioned, it’s a tradition celebrated by fasting during the day before Christmas until midnight, where Filipino families come together at the dinner table to eat all kinds of traditional dishes. Since Catholicism play an important part in our culture, some families may perform the nine-day prayer in a church in honor of their patron saints prior to the meal. Historically, this tradition was used by the Spaniards during their colonizing days to keep the natives tame and from rebelling against them (this came to an end with the fall of the Spanish empire in 1896 when the Filipinos started a revolution).

Foods we eat

Like in many festivities and celebrations we commemorate, a huge roasted pig is the centerpiece of it all. Juicy brown and crispy skin, glossy from the heat and oil, the sound of the crunch when you first slice into it with a knife - it’s always been a favourite of the Spanish and the Pinoys.

Dinuguan is perhaps my favourite dish to eat on any occasion. It is a pork dish with pig’s blood being part of the soup base, served with rice. Because there’s pig’s blood, I know people who are put off by the dish - I was one of them for a while, since I was a picky eater as a child, but I’ve come to appreciate the richness of the soup and the protein.

During the Spanish rule, dinuguan was created as a result of leftovers. The colonizers took all the good parts of the animal and so Filipinos took what was left and used their creativity to create the dishes we eat today, using parts like the liver, the heart, and even the blood.

The Celebration

Everyone has their own way of celebrating a festive season, especially with the pandemic still happening. Unfortunately, my family will be celebrating dispersed across the land, eating meals over Zoom like the viral videos of mukbang. My mother this year has cooked chicken and pasta with sweetcorn (she’s an unusual woman who has experimented and combined uncommon ingredients in her dishes - i.e. penne pasta with tuna).

I asked my friend, RJ (the sexiest and most bad-ass Filipina woman I’ve ever met) how she celebrates Noche Buena and she celebrates just like my family. “[My] mom makes an incredible spread of food that takes about a month to finish (lol), when midnight hits we open presents. We do not wait for Christmas day”. Her favourite dish to eat is sweet pineapple hamon - a deliciously glossy ham that’s smothered in pineapple glaze. It is the perfect mixture of sweet and savory, crispy and tender to the teeth, a mouthwatering burst of flavors. It was the centerpiece in our Thanksgiving table.

What the tradition means to me and Filipinxs everywhere

One of the compelling things I find about my home country and my culture is that despite Spain and other nations colonizing our land, enslaving my ancestors, and indoctrinating the people with their ideologies, we took what they tried to imperialize and made it our own. Our culture, our blood, our food, the tongue we speak are concoctions of different spices and flavours from all over the world which is what makes the Philippines so unique. It trickles through the intricacies of our daily lives as children of immigrants part of the diaspora and living in an interesting position and I’m trying to navigate.

To RJ, this is an important tradition to uphold. With how fast culture is evolving in relevance to the social changes, some traditions that have been passed down for generations are slowly dying. “It really means a lot to be with family and keep this tradition… it’s different from my American peers but I feel it’s more enjoyable and makes me feel like we’re still home away from home.” she says over texts.

Although Noche Buena sounds like a Spanish thing, I hope that this post brings you awareness and brings about a sense of appreciation for Filipino culture and history.

What traditions do you or your family do on Christmas?