Philippines – The World’s Longest Christmas

The Philippines has the longest Yuletide season in the world. Pop-up shops selling all manner of festive decorations appear along major shopping streets, and carols can be heard in stores from as early as August. The official Christmas – or ‘Ber Months’, as they’re known – countdown starts on 1 September, and continues until the Feast of the Three Kings in early January.

The nation is Asia’s largest Catholic country, and Filipinos take part in a nine-day-long Simbang Gabi series of masses, which culminate in the Misa de Gallo mass on Christmas Eve. After mass, they enjoy a feast known as Noche Buena: an open house celebration with family, friends and neighbours, who drop in to wish each other Merry Christmas. Food includes lechon roasted pig and coconut-laced bibingka rice cakes, and the most popular decorations are parols – colourful star-shaped lanterns that hang from bamboo poles, said to represent the star that guided the Wise Men to Jesus.