The Filipino Community of Corpus Christi Church, Carol Stream invites you to Simbang Gabi – which means “Evening or Night Mass – on Saturday, December 16 at 7 pm. The church will be decorated with colorful lights, beautiful star lanterns, and a Nativity Scene. After the Mass, we welcome everyone to a reception in Marian Hall featuring delicious Filipino dishes.
Simbang Gabi is a Filipino Christmas tradition. Like a novena, Simbang Gabi is a devotional, nine-day series of Masses held during the season of Advent from December 16 to 24 anticipating the celebration of the birthday of Baby Jesus on Christmas Day.
This tradition began in the year 1500 by the Spanish friars as they tried to evangelize the Filipinos to Catholicism. To gather the families in Church, the friars would ring bells to call the farmers at dawn before they left to till the rice fields and the fishermen who were just arriving from nights of sea fishing. Mass would then be celebrated, and catechism would be taught.
Today in the Philippines, Masses are still held in the early hours of the morning – around 4 a.m. However, Filipino communities in the United States and in many parts of the world have adapted the evening Masses due to the cold and wintry weather.
