DURING the holiday season, we take time to be with our families, friends, and colleagues to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some members of the family come home from faraway places to be with us on this special day. We share delicious meals, exchange gifts, play games, and simply bask in the warmth of familial bonds and fellow feelings.

Our seafarers, having grown up steeped in the tradition of Simbang Gabi, Noche Buena, and merrymaking on this day, do manage to get together with their shipmates for a modest feast.