For these singers, caroling is more than just fun and games
If experience is the best teacher, practice makes perfect, and rejection is just redirection, then going Christmas caroling is probably one of the best, if unlikely, kinds of training a young aspiring singer can have.
First, you have to be prepared and know more than one song—just in case the house owner asks that you sing something else after the classic opener, “Sa May-Bahay ang Aming Bati.”
Second, you have to perform live and have enough chutzpah to do it in front of strangers. Should they yell, “Patawad!” and shut their windows, then you just have to—third—brush it off and move on to the next house. Call them, “Barat!,” if you’re feeling bold as you make your exit.
These young singers sure didn’t take their Christmas caroling lightly.
“Caroling for me was a confidence-booster, like a training ground for performing. Imagine, going to random houses and singing for people you don’t even know!” the breakout Bicolano folk-pop artist Dwta told Lifestyle.
While she has always loved music, she didn’t know then that she would end up pursuing it as a profession. But if this one telling moment didn’t give it away, then perhaps nothing would have: “I was that pabibo kid who brought a flute, so that my playmates and I could set ourselves apart.”
“I never imagined that I would a be singer one day, but the way we did our caroling—pang-Philippine Arena na ang performance level!”
Dwta is known for writing and championing music in her native language, like her biggest hit yet, “Padaba Taka.” She also has a new single out called “Huling Liham.”
Jeniffer Maravilla, a finalist in the second season of the singing contest “The Clash,” also made sure to bring her competitive spirit on the streets during the holiday season.
“I have always loved singing for as long as I can remember. People would make me sing when I was in Grade 1 and I enjoyed it. I was happy kapag nagpapakitang-gilas ako. I always showed off whatever I got—even when I went caroling,” she told Lifestyle at the launch of her latest single, “‘Di Na Pwede.” “Kakanta talaga ako kahit saan!”
Conquering one’s anxiety
Varsity football player-turned-singer Seb Pajarillo used to be a shy kid. But going caroling in the holiday season, he said, was one of the things that helped him overcome his social anxiety.
“I wasn’t in touch with my musical side yet during that time and it took me a while before I finally felt confident enough to be a singer. But I think caroling can really help you learn how to deal and interact with people. It helped me ease my social anxiety. I became more confident talking to other people,” Pajarillo told Lifestyle.
For these singers, caroling is one of the things that never fails to remind them of their respective childhoods and all the fun they had growing up. “We really tried not to miss a single house. In our eagerness to go from one house to the next, one of my friends fell into a gutter! And to this day, we call him, ‘Boy Kanal,’” R-ji of the P-pop boy band Alamat told Lifestyle.
“One Christmas season, the year my friends and I were going through puberty, we did our usual rounds. We were all doing fine until we reached this one home. We overheard a woman say, ‘Ano ba ‘yan parang mga tatay na ang mga nangangaroling!’” R-ji said. “At pumiyok pa ang isa sa ‘min!”
And what is Christmas caroling without being flat-out ignored or driven away. Sometimes, it’s not even humans who will end up shooing you off—a lesson Alamat’s Mo learned the hard way as a kid in a small town in Zambales.
“There was a home in the fields that we always go to because the owners always gave us P15. But I think they got fed up. Or the bantay got fed up. One time, we knocked on their door, and suddenly their carabao rose up and started to chase us! And then their dog followed!” Mo recalled, laughing.
Creativity unlocked
Creating makeshift instruments out of regular household items was another “core memory” they all share.
“When I was 7, my family and I lived in a compound with several residences. So my elder sister and I would compete—paramihan ng pera at regalo! We would use tansan (bottle caps) and metal wires to create a tambourine of sorts,” recalled Pajarillo, who has a new song out called, “Dati Pa.”
“We used empty Stik-O jars, plastic sheets and rubber bands to make drums. Luckily, our neighbors then in San Pedro, Laguna were all nice and gave us aguinaldo,” Maravilla added. “I’m happy and I feel lucky that I got to experience this tradition.”
However, caroling among the youth seems to be getting less and less popular through the years. Back then, the evening jangling of tansan and thumping of drums could be heard in the streets in late November. In our neighborhood in Pasig City, we had our first group of carolers only last Dec. 19—and they were all barangay hall employees.
And it’s not even a big city phenomenon, Dwta observed. “I still see some kids caroling, especially in our province, but it’s no longer the same like before,” she said. “Back in the day, different groups of kids would already be out and about, even before December.”
While there’s online caroling these days, the “thrill and joy” of doing it person is simply different, the singers agreed. “It’s an experience you won’t get when you’re older,” Pajarillo pointed out.
Maybe you can chalk up caroling’s diminishing popularity to technology and social media, or even the COVID-19 pandemic, but whatever it is, the singers can only hope that this holiday practice continues for generations to come—especially the musically inclined.
“While I don’t think I have seen as many carolers going from door to door, it’s definitely one of the age-old traditions that should live on. As with all things, I’m sure it will find it’s way back into the public consciousness one way or another,” singer-songwriter Paolo Sandejas (“Just a Song,” “All the Time,” “Sirens”) told Lifestyle.
“I think it’s a tradition that should be preserved, especially among kids today,” Dwta stressed.
“The excitement, the randomness of it all… it’s a tradition that lets you to really connect with people in real life. Plus, the memories you make with your friends, or even strangers, is something you can’t replicate online. The mere experience of hearing, “Patawad” time and time again is in itself, already priceless,” she said.
