Kiong Hee Huat Tsai: Philippines' 10 BEST CULTURE AND TRADITION

Filipinos have their own twists and peculiarities. To emphasize the point, in this article, we’re giving you 10 best culture and traditions in the Philippines.

FOOD

1. Filipinos love to eat. A typical Pinoy diet consists at most of six meals a day: breakfast, snacks, lunch, snacks or merienda, dinner, and again a midnight snack before going to sleep. Whenever we are stressed or depressed, we eat a lot.

2. Rice is the chief food. “Unli Rice” is what we always ask whenever we eat in a canteen or a “carinderia.” One of the more popular Filipino foods on special occasions is lechon, a whole pig roasted over charcoal fire. Nevertheless, adobo and sinigang are the popular dishes which almost every Filipino can cook. Special occasions will never be complete without gin and beer and mostly accompanied with a “pulutan,” balut, a duck egg with an embryo.

BEER

GIN

SINIGANG

ADOBO

LECHON

3. Eating is done with the hands especially in informal settings and for outdoor meals, the banana leaves serve as plates. Filipinos love boodle fights because most enjoy their meals by eating with bare hands.

4. Filipinos are very religious. The Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia. More than 85 percent of the people are Roman Catholic. Children are introduced to the statue of "Mama Mary" at a very early age. Muslim provinces celebrate Islamic religious holidays as legal holidays. Mosques are located in large cities throughout the country.

5. Bayanihan or the spirit of helping one another. It is reflected in many ways. All members of the family and neighbors help out

without expecting payment in return.

6. Filipino people are courteous and respectful. This can be seen by the Filipino tradition of using the words “po” and “opo”. These words are words of respect. They are used mostly in the Filipino families to show respect to the elders. The thing is that, even when not talking to family, as long as the Filipino people are talking to someone that is older than them, they use these words. The Filipino family, siblings call their older sister “ate”. They call their older brothers “kuya”. But this doesn't end there. Even when Filipino people are not related to the people they interact with, they still use these words as a sign of respect.

7. Eating out is a favorite Filipino pastime. The most popular among fastfood chains in the Philippines is none other than Jollibee. Who doesn’t know Jollibee? Whenever kids ask for “pasalubong”, they’ll always going to ask for “Chickenjoy.” Also, teenagers used to hang out in Jollibee. at present time, there are 765 Jollibee branches in the Philippines.

8. You may be surprised to see how such situations are handled in Philippines. It is like taking everything from them except their love of joking. Joking and laughing at everything perhaps give them relief and makes them see things more positively. Filipino people are very resilient. Despite hardships during the day, Filipinos can still find something to smile about. Filipinos have this natural ability to look past problems and troubles and see the good in everything. Parents bring up their children with the natural thinking that “things would go better”.

9. Larong Pinoy, as we call them usually, are very creative games that require very simple things to play. Because of the current developing status of the country, parents do not usually invest in expensive toys for their kids. Instead, we play some Pinoy games that usually require only people to have fun. The most popular games are tumbang preso, patintero, luksong baka, piko, agawan base, bahay-bahayan, luksong lubid, langit lupa, sawsaw suka, etc.