BULAKAN, Bulacan—“It is simple, yet, it gives great joy and smile to the hearts of young kids this Christmas,” a netizen posted in social media after young children in their village in this town brought home candies wrapped in candy-form newspapers on Monday, Dec. 23.
Liza Almario-Hernandez, 48, shared her thoughts of appreciation in her social media account and her picture together with her 4 year old granddaughter Aqui after they received “huge newspaper-candy-wrapped candies” from just opposite their house.
Her sister Boie Almario and her grandkids also took home similar candy-filled candy wraps during the revival of Reyes family’s old Christmas pot-of-coins-candy tradition.
The Almario’s are just two of the neighbors of Anton Luis Reyes Catindig in Paliwas street Barangay Maysantol (Cupang) whose 70 youngest family members and young children opened a gift in a candy-look newspaper filled with candies and goodies this Christmas.
The little sweets and tastes of goodness is part of the revival of the family’s “newspaper–candy” giving tradition that was a tweak from the old coins in a jar, “dukot-barya-sa banga” tradition begun by late journalist Rodrigo M. Reyes. Each newspaper-candy wrapped has a cupcake, a lollipop and 15-20 pieces of assorted candies and chocolates.
Reyes, who wrote for the old Manila Times, Taliba and People’s Journal and as a columnist in Bulacan local papers has been known for years to have played as a local Santa Claus when he had children in Paliwas and other streets in Maysantol lined up in their house on Christmas day and allow each of them to fetch coins inside a huge jar through their bare hands.
Reyes “dukot barya sa banga” tradition went on for nearly 30 years since he began it in the early1970’s until before he suffered ailment and died in 1998.
The jar is about 30 inches in height and 15 inches in diameter which Reyes filled in with then P1.00-octagon-shaped P2.00-P5.00 coins all year round from January 1 of every year intended for the December 25 Christmas Day.
Aurita Mabanta, 63, recalled how she and her siblings and friends would fall in line to grab coins in “Ka Rodrigo’s banga”. “We were teenagers then, we all looked forward to that Christmas morning where we would run fast and would want to be in the front line to grab the coins as much as our hands can hold and fetch,” she told NEWSCORE on Wednesday.
Maysantol Councilman Rex Garcia has always wanted the descendants of Reyes to continue the “dukot ng barya sa banga,” and it took a while before the family again brings joy and smiles to the hearts of the young children in their place.
Thirty three year old Person With Disability (PWD) advocate, Anton Luis Reyes Catindig, grandson of Reyes and managing editor of NEWSCORE, a local newspaper and online news relives his old man’s tradition this year but with a tweak through the “newspaper-candy wrapped candies”.
Catindig, a third generation family member reminds children of the continued existence of newspapers and that despite the digital, social media and Artificial Intelligence (AI) era these days, the print industry still does exist and not only as a source of major information but can even be artistic gift wrappers.
“Making them as gift wrappers for the Holiday Season is part of promoting the print and newspaper industry. Children today should learn to appreciate newspapers too. For me, it is also a continued reliving of the family profession,” Catindig said.
Catindig’s mother, Carmela Bautista Reyes-Estrope is a 26 year Correspondent of Philippine Daily Inquirer and the owner and editor-in-chief of NEWSCORE.
But according to Catindig, the Christmas smiles the candies bring are really something for the children to cherish. Estrope began the purely candy tradition in early 2000 and only lasted until 2005, just before she established NEWSCORE.
“When I was a kid, I’m always anticipating gifts from my parents, godparents and relatives and even from other people. Now that I’m older, it is my turn to share gifts and blessings to the kids and this is the idea that we have come up with, a simple candy gift-giving to the children in our community that surely brought joy and smiles on their faces. Not only that we somehow relive my lolo’s tradition and our family’s profession as journalists, but also to extend my advocacy to the PWD community which I belong to, and even so to the young ones and children in our place. This marks the start of my journey to bring smiles and joy through various ways to the PWD community, the children and eventually to help more people through the coming years,” he said.
Catindig is also a licensed Criminologist despite his being a symbrachydactyly, a person in-born with short fingers.
