Clinton A.

Balbontin
4 AB Social Sciences

PH 103 T (11:30-12:30)
Jovino Miroy, Ph.D.
The Myth of Sacred Time:

Marxist Analysis of Philippine Pre-colonial Feasting and Christmas Celebration

Christmas in the Philippines is considered the longest one in the world (CNN.com).
The lavish displays would start as early as September and only wrap up in January. This is
not to say that the rituals and religious prayers of Philippine Christmas is also elongated to
accommodate the cultural celebration. Rather, the celebratory zeal through material objects
demonstrates that the celebration is also an aesthetic one. Because of this, the supposedly
sacred time of Christmas becomes an economic celebration of conspicuous consumption.
Problematizing the aforementioned phenomenon, this paper questions the possibility
of sacred time in extravagant celebrations. By expanding Karl Marxs ideas on religion and
class struggle, it forwards socio-economic status as the central theme of negotiation and
contestation of powers happening during these sacred festivities. In answering the question,
this research discusses the ethno-historical analysis of competitive feasting in pre-colonial
Philippines by Laura Lee Junker and the concept of conspicuous consumption by Thorstein
Veblen. Accordingly, the central argument that sacred time is improbable unless social
inequality is fundamentally solved is posited by the author.
There are various definitions of sacred time. But for the purposes of this paper, sacred
time is defined as the period that is distinguished from the system of work and neo-liberal
values. Its opposite is, therefore, the profane or secular time which is the moment spent on
production and money-making and that results to stress and exhaustion. The examples of
sacred time are those spent on resting or activities that does not gain profit such as feasting,
parties, leisure activities, celebrations, etc. Thus, Christmas season is a good illustration
because it gives us time to celebrate with our families. And in turn, people leaves work for a
while for the break.
Pre-Colonial Feasting for Social Relations
The extravagant Christmas season is one of the many calendrical sacred time
celebrations that majority of Filipinos are observing. Exploring the literature of festivities in
the Philippines, various authors identify that this cultural practice could have its roots up to
pre-colonial Philippine islands.

Sixteenth-century Spanish sources and early ethnographic accounts of

Philippine chiefdoms persisting into the modern era suggest that ceremonial
feasts were held frequently throughout the year in a variety of social contexts
that included both calendrical and life-crisis ritual. Life-crisis events requiring
the sponsorship of a ritual feast by the kin group involved included the birth of
a child, achievement of puberty, marriage, illness, or death of a household
member. (Junker 316)
Also, the same ethno-historical research and literature about the pre-colonial
Philippines points out that lavish feasting is a medium where social hierarchy and economic
relations is reinforced. This is where patron-client relations and elite-elite competition is
initially observed. Laura Lee Junker describes this festive arrangement in her seminal work
Raiding, Trading, and Feasting.
All of the feast participants, including chiefs and nobles as well as commoners
and slaves attached to the sponsor, were obliged to make contributions to the
feast or offerings to be used in the accompanying sacrificial ritual and in
payment to the religious specialists performing. It is clear from both the
contact period Spanish sources and early ethnographic accounts that
contributions from subordinates were exacted as a form of tribune or enforced
labor, while the prestations from members of the nobility took place in the
context of alliance-building reciprocal gift exchanges. (Junker 317)
In relation to this, not only did the sponsoring chief or kin group increase its prestige
in the region by providing the enormous supplies of food and status goods disbursed at such a
ritual event, but the occasion provided an opportunity for all the attending datus and male kin
group leaders to attempt to improve their positions within a ranked political hierarchy of
chiefly authority (Junker 319).

This prestige-enhancing aspects of the feasts in the

Philippines are emphasized by Biernatzki (1985). In his ethnographical analysis among the
known Bukidnon chiefdoms of northern Mindanao, he observed the overt negotiation of
power relations through the traditional "boasting contest" accompanying ceremonial feasts
(1985: 36-37).
Junker (324) concluded that the ethno-historical evidence [supports] the idea that
feasting in some Philippine societies was overtly competitive, with chiefs attempting to up
the ante of displayed wealth and lavish food giveaways with each successive round of
ceremonial sponsorship. This also shows that participation in sacred time, even in the precolonial Philippines, such as feasts is indicative of social position.
Contemporary Feasting for Economic Position
The mentioned literature above also sheds light on our cultural practices of enjoying
the Christmas. But, this season is not only a celebration that reinforces social position.
Instead, it manifests economic positions in the vicious cycle of production, consumption,
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surplus, and profit. Because of this, for the Christmas celebration to be a successful time,
production must be able to meet the demand for consumption. Thus, for the whole year, the
working classes are motivated to toil hard with a promise of large Christmas bonus and
accumulating funds in order to consume. Meanwhile, the leisure class are able to enjoy
spending excessive resources and flaunt it not only during Christmas but in every calendrical
and life-crisis rituals. Take for example the wedding of Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes
recently.
In questioning the DongYan wedding, Ricardo Abad cites the Norwegian sociologist
Thorstein [Veblens] term conspicuous consumption to describe consumers who buy
expensive items to display wealth and income rather than to satisfy their real needs. This
display, done conspicuously to make an effect, can be read as a way to gain and signal status
in the community, to assert ones superiority, and to acquire a great deal of symbolic capital
(Verstehen). The lavish wedding of the couple is publicized to [signal Dingdong Dantes]
superiority among peers in the movie world, his placement in the ranks of the Philippine
upper class, and his summa cum laude status as a man who has claimed the heart of a
beautiful woman and who has demonstrated his capacity to provide for her in a manner fit for
a queen (Verstehen).
Sociologically, conspicuous consumption was only associated to rich people. Yet the
recent research from the likes of Kerwin Kofi Charles, Erik Hurst, and finance professor
Nikolai Roussanov, indicates a different understanding. Conspicuous consumption is also
now a socio-economic behavior very common to the poor social classes and economic
groups, and common to the societies of countries with emerging economies. In relation to
Christmas celebration, from September up to January, the working class is motivated to
consume too much from what they need based from the surplus they garnered for laboring for
the whole year. And to signal that they can consume like the leisure class, they distract
themselves by flaunting that they can reciprocate gifts in celebrating the gift-changing season
of Christmas. Take for example on how the malls, a place for consumption, are filled during
the holidays. Also, the existence of night bazaars near churches is indicative that to celebrate
sacred time, one has to consume. Consequently, the symbolism of the sanctity of the season is
refocused on consumption.
In a sense, the Christmas season in the Philippines is an institutionalized oppressive
celebration where economic relations are re-emphasized. The working class are given the
power to consume and in a way, they are distracted and trapped in this vicious cycle of

consumption. And the leisure class and bourgeoisie continues to enjoy their increasing profit
of augmented production and consumption of the working class.
Marxist Analysis
For Karl Marx, because our consciousness is bounded by our materialistic world,
religion and whatever we consider sacred is actually an opium of the masses.
The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does
not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of
man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself
again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the
world of man state, society. This state and this society produce religion,
which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted
world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic
compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point dhonneur, its
enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis
of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human
essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The
struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world
whose spiritual aroma is religion.
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real
suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless
conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand
for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their
condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The
criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears
of which religion is the halo. (Marx 1844)
Thus, when the idea of sacred time is discussed in Marxs framework, it becomes a
myth because time for him is an economic asset used by the capitalist to gain more profit. If
time is considered sacred, consumption should also be halted. And thus, it is not good in
maintaining economic relations because no one will consume in a certain time.
In understanding the pre-colonial feasting and consumption heavy Christmas season,
religious and sacred time is actually a medium that perpetuates systemic violence against the
subaltern or the working class.
Philosophical Reflection
If sacred time cannot exist in todays extravagant celebrations, can we ever bring it
back? Or can we achieved sacred time again based on its truest intention?
In a way, the critique of pre-colonial and contemporary festivities above put forward
sacred time as a symptom-reducing pill, not a single treatment solution to the malignant
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sickness of our society which is social inequality. Right now, the authentic sacred time is only
a privilege by bourgeoisie and leisure class. James Luchte provided a similar important
insight regarding this in his article Marx and the Sacred.
Perhaps the most formidable obstacle in the task of retrieving a sense of the
sacred in Marx consists in his repeated, and often polemical, statements
against religion. Indeed, such an obstacle may in the end be one of our own
making, as we are trapped within the labyrinth of our own historical
understanding. Yet, assuming, for the moment, that religion and the sacred are
the same phenomena, if we take his pronouncement that religion is the opium
of the people in isolation, we may be lead to believe that Marx felt that at best
religion - and thus the "sacred" - is a narcotic, which while it may be utilized
to alleviate pain, remains an illusory amelioration for a situation of despair.
Religion as an opiate not only implies sedation from the pain of a life of
exploitation, but also suggests a systematic and strategic attempt to deaden or
absorb any critical impulse to liberation. (Luchte)
By celebrating sacred time, therefore, with the current structural inequality, it will
only further delay the liberation of the oppressed. This condition demonstrates that structural
inequality is the fundamental problem on why sacred time is improbable. Basically, these
difficulty could only be solved therefore if structural inequality in our society is resolved.
Conclusion
As indicated by pre-colonial feasting in the Philippines up to the contemporary
celebration of Christmas, sacred time is actually a myth. It is a vicious cycle perpetuated in
order to maintain socio-economic relations for the subaltern to be motivated to consume and
for the elite to negotiate their dominance whenever it is contested. In its truest sense and as a
universal experience, sacred time is improbable, not until structural inequality is
fundamentally solved. For the true sacred time to be achieved, systemic change must be
attained. Unless it is not done, sacred time will continue as a religious myth.

Works Cited
Abad, Ricardo. "#DongYan: Conspicuous Love." Verstehen. Ateneo Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, 11 Jan. 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
<http://verstehenonline.org/2015/01/11/dongyan-conspicuous-love/>.
Brown, Sarah. "The Philippines Shows the World How to Celebrate Christmas." CNN.com. Cable
News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., 5 Dec. 2012. Web.
<http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/05/world/asia/irpt-xmas-philippines-traditions/>.
Biernatzki, William E. Bukidnon datuship in the Upper Pulangi River Valley. In A. Guzman and E.
Pacheco, eds. Bukidnon Politics and Religion, pp. 15-49. Institute of Philippine Culture
Papers No. 11. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1985.
Junker, Laura Lee. Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2000.
Luchte, J. "Marx and the Sacred." Journal of Church and State 51.3 (2010): 413-37. Web.
"Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right 1844." Marx, A Contribution to
the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right 1844. N.p., Feb. 2005. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
<https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm>.