Filipinos love to party. They will find any excuse to have a party. They celebrate births, marriages, saints’ days and everything else. The Spanish adapted traditional rituals by celebrating a saint’s birthday on dates formerly associated with animistic rituals. You will see festivals in every ethnic group, as people get together for essentially spiritual events. … More October Festivals in the Philippines
The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia with commercially viable marble deposits, and most of these are in Romblon, hence its description as “Marble Island” or “Marble Country”. Marble can also be found on Alad and Cobrador Islands, and at the north end of Tablas. The quarries have been worked since the … More Marble in the Philippines
Westerners have been present in the Philippines for over four hundred years, and many Filipinos are aware that a Westerner’s ways are different. You see it more prominent when a Filipino married a Westerner. The outgoing hospitality of Filipinos, along with their willingness to adapt to foreign guests, make it too easy for them to … More Getting Accepted Gastronomically in the Philippines
This photo of Batanes is courtesy of TripAdvisor Beyond the northern tip of Luzon is the mountainous Batanes, Home of the Winds, and the Philippine’s smallest province, both in land area and population. Flanked by the Pacific Ocean on the east and the South China Sea on the west, the islands are lashed by gale-force … More Batanes – The Philippine’s northernmost remote islands
Today being Father’s Day, I want to talk about Filipino families. Due to the importance of the family in Filipino culture, it is impressed upon every individual from childhood to adulthood that parents are owed a debt of gratitude for bringing one into this world. This is balanced by the belief and tradition that parents … More Filipino Families in the Philippine Culture
In Chinese culture, the Lunar New Year 2019 is the Year of the Pig where Chinese communities around the world celebrated the Year of the Pig Parade last February. Here in the U.S., several states celebrate Pigs on Parade for fundraising events using live pigs. In the Philippines, the folks of the towns of … More June Festival – Pigs on Parade
Continuing on the blog from last week, I hope you are not getting a nightmare looking at these photos. If you do, I apologize. Who is Apo Anno? Apo Anno, a tribal leader in the Benguet province, was a descendant of a 12th century Kankanaey hunter who lived to a ripe old age … More Apo Anno – A Philippine National Treasure
Kabayan is one of the oldest towns in Benguet, situated in a wide valley surrounded by mountains in Northern Luzon. It was recognized as the center of Ibaloi culture. Out of several tribes in this area, the Ibaloi tribe was the only people to practice mummification as a way of preserving their dead … More Kabayan and its Centuries-old Mummies
In the Philippines, there is an abundance of flowers during the month of May. The first of May is an important day throughout the Philippines as it heralds a merry month of fiestas, flowers, dainty maidens in pretty gown, and the twin processions of the Flores de Mayo and the Santacruzan. Filipinos celebrate a tradition … More Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan – A Filipino Tradition celebrated in May
Vigan, the provincial capital of Ilocos Sur in Luzon northwest region on the Mestizo River, was built by the Spaniards in 1572, their third oldest settlement on the islands after Cebu and Intramuros. Unlike Intramuros, it was never fortified. It has some of the Philippine’s best remaining Spanish colonial architecture. Before the Spanish arrived, trade … More Historic Vigan, A UNESCO World Heritage Site
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