Merry Christmas in Isinay

SORRY FOR THIS, but I would not like to let Christmas be buried by the New Year without posting this item.

After all, it was one of a number of items that I intended (but failed) to publish here as soon as last month's chilly nights started to make me wear my "ukay-ukay" sweaters.

It's my try at answering the question WHAT'S "MERRY CHRISTMAS" IN ISINAY? -- a query that was in fact posted in Facebook by one whose account is named something like "LGU Dupax."

Well, thanks to the tip of one of my Facebook friends who recalled that the Isinay term for CHRISTMAS is DUVIRAL, I went on a "1 plus 1 equals 2" mode and came out with this: "MAGAYHAYAN DUVIRAL."

Thus, if you wish to greet someone FELIZ NAVIDAD or MALIGAYANG PASKO in Isinay, you can use -- at your own risk -- the also two-word sentence MAGAYHAYAN DUVIRAL.

I inserted "at your own risk" simply because that greeting is rarely -- put that very, very rarely -- used among Isinays anymore.

In fact, if you use that greeting in Dupax (and I guess even among die-hard Isinays in Bambang and Aritao), you will certainly encounter quizzical looks similar to those directed to warty creatures from outer space.

A possible alternative, if you insist on using Isinay (and if my peso-worth of advice would count), is: MAGAYJAYAN PASKU.

[Note how I use MAGAYJAYA and MAGAYHAYA interchangeably. The first spelling is a carry-over from the Spanish tongue that pronounces J as H. The latter spelling is a more contemporary or modern one and takes after the current orthography of the Iloko and Tagalog languages.]

Anyway, the greeting with the least resistance would be MERI KRISMAS. It is the same whachamacallit used in any language and in any corner in the country's 7,100 islands each time Christmas comes around in the Philippines nowadays.


OH YES, while we're at it, please accept your Isinay Bird's apologies for having acted like Ebenezer Scrooge (in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A CHRISTMAS CAROL) insofar as posting items in this blogsite last month was concerned.

There were meteor showers of ideas for this blogsite that came within my reach in the cold nights of December. Here are examples:

"Goodbye to the Diana"
"Sop As Da Boys and Other Carols"
"Maguey for Christmas Trees,Soapsuds for Snow"

How come I wasn't able to write and post them?

Well, as they say in Tagalog, tao lamang po ang inyong Isinay Bird.

Somehow something got in the way... and before I knew it, Christmas was gone and it is already January.