The holiday season has long been Whistler’s bread and butter, at least economically speaking. While droves of tourists from near and far descend on our snowy wonderland to mark the season, the average Whistlerite typically spends the busy period working as much as possible.
It’s all part of the seasonal rhythms of a tourist town, but add in the fact that so much of our population is far from home and the ones we love, this time of year can be isolating for many.
That’s what makes celebrating holiday traditions all the more important in a place like Whistler, and for the many immigrants that call the resort home, the holidays are a chance to both preserve the rituals and customs of their native country, while also forging new ones in Canada’s ski mecca.
Pique caught up with a handful of locals to hear how they are marking the season, and the varied responses exemplify the rich cultural tapestry of our resort community. However you celebrate, Pique wishes you and yours the very best after what has been a tough year.
‘Tis the (four-month-long) season
If you’re one of those people who thinks November is too early to get into the Christmas spirit, chances are you’re not Filipino.
The predominantly Catholic country is home to the world’s longest holiday season, which typically kicks off in September and, depending on the family and their own traditions, can last through to as late as the third Sunday of January.
“Usually in the Philippines, you’d see all the Christmas lanterns, the Christmas lights and Christmas trees up in September. You even have carols, but because of COVID, you can’t really have that [this year],” explained Iris Paguia Portillo, who moved to Canada from the Philippines as a child.
Hanging in Portillo’s Whistler home is a star-shaped lantern known as a parol that is illuminated nightly, beginning Sept. 1. In fact, having such a lengthy holiday season comes with an unintended benefit for Portillo and her family.
‘I don’t even think we took ours down. We just turned it off,” she said with a laugh.
Portillo and her husband, whose family is from El Salvador, welcomed their firstborn daughter in August, and as the holidays approached, the couple felt the pressure to make her first Christmas a memorable one that incorporated traditions from both of their respective cultures. Like a lot of Latin families, that means food, and Portillo and her husband plan to make the Salvadorian street-food staple, pupusas, a griddle cake made with cornmeal or rice flour, a first for both their daughter and Portillo’s Filipino family.
But along with the customs of their homelands, the Portillos have also adopted traditions from their Canadian lives.
“Half of my life was in Canada, and he grew up here, so we have the Christmas pyjamas and those Western traditions going on,” Portillo said. “There’s definitely a pressure when we’re trying to figure out how to mix these traditions and make it work properly without overwhelming her.”
Good fortune for the New Year
It wasn’t until Taiwan native Chia-Ling Wu met her Swiss husband that she got to experience a Christmas tradition that is an essential part of the season for many Canadians.
“I never cut a Christmas tree, so I think that’s really cool,” she said.
Most Taiwanese practise a combination of Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian traditions, and with just five per cent of the population identifying as Christian, Christmas isn’t widely observed.
The Chinese Lunar New Year, on the other hand, is the most eagerly anticipated holiday of the year in Taiwan, and in 2022, falls on Feb. 1. The day before is always a busy one for the Wu family, beginning with the family coming together to clean the house from top to bottom to help ward off any bad luck from the previous year. The night also culminates in a large family feast, typically hotpot, along with other specific dishes eaten on New Year’s Eve, each with a specific meaning behind it. Oranges, for instance, bring good luck, prosperity, and a long life, while fish—which in Chinese is a homonym of the word “surplus”—is also commonly eaten, although it’s customary to leave some of the fish on your plate behind so that surplus extends into the New Year. After dinner, in Wu’s family at least, the unmarried members will receive a red envelope of money from their elders.
“If you’re married, you don’t get any red envelope money,” Wu said with a laugh.
Proficient in Chinese calligraphy, Wu’s father will write messages of good fortune on red scrolls, which are commonly unfurled on New Year’s Day.
Wu has maintained some of these traditions in Whistler, cleaning the house on New Year’s Eve and trying her hand at calligraphy, but she admits that the traditions are bit more informal in Whistler.
“It’s not very traditional,” she said. “We just try to have a Chinese potluck and just bring everyone together.”
Caga Tió, the pooping Christmas log
For most Spaniards, Santa Claus is a relatively modern phenomenon.
“When I was young, it was just Caga Tió and the Three Kings,” said Barcelona native and Whistlerite Anna De Sans Florenza.
For the uninitiated, Caga Tió is a Catalan tradition that… well, let’s let Florenza take it from here. “This is going to be hard to translate,” she conceded. “Caga Tió is a piece of log that’s going to poo [out] presents for the kids.”
To elaborate, kids across Catalonia will pick out a sturdy-looking log early in the season, affix it with googly eyes, a nose and mouth, and ply it with bread and slices of orange so he is nice and full come Christmas Day, when the children will sing him a song so he is inspired to, uh, excrete a bounty of gifts.
“It’s something that nobody understands, but it’s typical from here,” Florenza said.
It’s a tradition that Florenza and her Catalan husband have carried over to Whistler, where, needless to say, friends have become enamoured with the festive, crapping log.
“We did the Caga Tió last year with our friends, because they like it and it’s funny a piece of wood that poos presents,” she added.
Exactly.
Another Spanish tradition is the Epiphany, better known as Three Kings’ Day, which takes place every Jan. 6 to mark the adoration of baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men. Taking place in villages and towns across the country, the festivities begin on the night of Jan. 5, when the Three Wise Men take to the streets “so the kids can go outside and be shown that, ‘Yeah, Yeah, yeah, they are here, so be ready because the next day they’re gonna come with all the presents,” Florenza said.
Florenza and her husband have already introduced their young daughter to the joys of Caga Tió and Santa, but celebrating Three Kings’ Day might have to wait for a future holiday season.
“Step by step, you know what I mean? She’s nine months, so for sure she’s not going to remember this winter,” Florenza said. “Still, we’re going to try to give her as much things as possible to remember.”
