“Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” is a traditional Filipino Christmas song. It was originally composed by Vicente D. Rubi and Mariano Vestil in 1933 as Kasadya ning Táknaa (English: How Blissful is this Season!). A version of the song in Tagalog was used by Josefino Cenizal as a marching song for “Ang Pugad ng Aguila” (Hawk’s Nest) in 1938. National Artist Levi Celerio also wrote Tagalog lyrics to the song during the 1950′s. The song is still sung today in various communities, especially in Churches both in the Philippines and abroad.

United Nations' International Year of Natural Fibers

Each year, farmers harvest around 35 million tons of natural fibers from a wide range of plants and animals – from sheep, rabbits, goats, camels and alpacas, from cotton bolls, abaca and sisal leaves and coconut husks, and from the stalks of jute, hemp, flax and ramie plants. Those fibers form fabrics, ropes and twines that have been fundamental to society since the dawn of civilization.

But over the past half century, natural fibers have been displaced in our clothing, household furnishings, industries and agriculture by man-made fibers with names like acrylic, nylon, polyester and polypropylene. The success of synthetics is due mainly to cost. Unlike natural fibers harvested by farmers, commonly used synthetic fibers are mass produced from petrochemicals to uniform strengths, lengths and colours, easily customized to specific applications.