Philippine culture is related to
Polynesian,
Micronesian,
Malaysian and
Latin American cultures. The people today are mostly Polynesians, although there are people with Spanish, Micronesian, Mexican, Malaysian and Chinese blood. Geographically, the Philippines is considered part of Southeast Asia. However, the Philippine culture has many differences with other Asian cultures, and has similarities with the cultures of the
Pacific Islands and Latin America, such as in language, food, religion, traditions and ethnicity. It is known to Filipinos that they are descendants of people who cam from Malaysia, however that is not true. Most Filipinos are Malay, but Malay doesn't mean from Malaysia, it means the Polynesians. The indigenous culture is related to those of
Melanesia and the later Polynesian culture has similarities to Pacific Island cultures. These similarities include the Filipino language and ethnicity; most common with that of
Guam and the
Northern Mariana Islands. The Spanish colonization heavily influenced the culture. The most significant influence is the religion - Catholicism, plus, Spanish is spoken in some parts of the Philippines, and there are even some descendants of the Colonizers today. As well as the Spanish culture, the
Native Mexican culture was introduced as the Philippines was governed from Mexico. In Filipino, there are many borrowed words from Native Mexican languages. And Some people also have Native American origins. Today, many people do not acknowledge the Philippine's relations with Latin America, Spain and the Pacific Islands. Instead, because of the country's location, it is common to notice the similarities with other Asian countries, although there are much less.
The indigenous population in the Philippines, known as the Negritos, has many similarities with the people of Melanesia and
Papua New Guinea. Some of these people wear traditional clothes such as grass skirts, live in isolated villages in the mountains and rainforest and practice traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles. After the Negritos, Groups of Polynesians came to the Philippines, coming from Taiwan (Filipinos are not descendants of the Han-Chinese Taiwanese people who inhabit Taiwan today, but the Taiwanese aborigines, who have a very small population.) and spreading as far as
Madagascar,
Hawaii,
New Zealand and
Easter Island. Today you can see similarities in language, ethnicity and traditions between the Philippines and Pacific Island cultures, as they have common origins. Later, a small amount of people coming from
Malaysia and
Indonesia also settled the islands.
Spanish colonization in the
Philippines lasted from 1565 to 1898. Most of that time the islands were governed from
Mexico and later directly from Spain. As a result, there is a significant amount of Spanish and Mexican influence in Philippine customs and traditions.
Hispanic influences are visible in traditional Philippine
folk music and
dance,
cuisine, festivities,
religion, ethnicity and
language. In Filipino, there are many Native American words that were introduced by the Mexicans in the Philippines. The most visible example of Spanish are the Spanish names of Filipinos, which were given through a tax law (see:
Alphabetical Catalog of Surnames), the thousands of Spanish loanwords in native languages such as
Tagalog and
Cebuano, the Spanish speaking parts of the Philippines, and the majority
Catholic religion.
There are also strong similarities with the Pacific islands, Mexico, and Spain. There are some similarities with
Islamic Malaysian and Indonesian cultures, and
Chinese and
Japanese.
Religion in the Philippines
The Philippines is one of two predominantly
Roman Catholic nations in Asia-Pacific, the other being
East Timor. Over 90% of the Philippine population are Christians. About 5%
Muslims and another 5% either practice
Pagan religions, Buddhism, Hinduism or practice no religion at all.
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Superstition
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, and the introduction of Roman Catholicism and
Western culture in the 16th century, the indigenous Polynesian people of what is now called the Philippines were adherents of a mixture of
Animism,
Islam,
Hinduism and
Vajrayana Buddhism. Indigenous gods and goddesses include "Araw" (Sun) and "Buwan" (moon), who are people who appear to remove tumors and diseased tissue by sticking their hands into a patient's body and extracting human flesh and blood, but leaving the patient scar free. Some see this performance as a
sleight of hand false interpretation. Believers accept it as true, and accept it as an alternative healing method, and a way to take advantage of the
placebo effect.
TOP REASONS WHY FILIPINOS ARE SUFFERING ECONOMIC CRISIS
1. January -" New Years Day , beginning of a new struggle in life, if you want to have a bountiful year start your year with numerous foods and drinks" these are the usuall belief of Filipinos, that's why they are willing to spend money on January 1 just to show that they are full of blessings from God, even at the expense of money owing that will greatly affect their basic needs in life.
2. February - Valentine Celebration, is a day of showing love and affection of couples, they commonly give gifts,flowers, chocolate, set expensive dates, in an expensive place like restaurant, hotels, beaches and other romantic places wherein they can share memorable moments in their journey of love.
3. March - Graduations and Recognitions, a day of giving awards, prize, and recognitions to childrens effort, which also give honor and rewards to parents. A proud parent will announced these recognition to the public by preparing festive party which cost a thousand of pesos for the happines of their siblings that cannot be paid by any material things.
4. April - Semana Santa, a yearly celebration of Catholic that last for a week, which is also consider as vacation and relaxation time of students, Government and private employees, a time to go to picnic, mall and other recreational activities instead of attending the purpose of their holidays that cost large amount of money that affects their budget that tends to pawning of their jewelries and other material things.
5. May - a. SantaKrusan, a yearly explosion of beauty of Filipino Women as part also of religious activity and tradional practices.
b. Family reunion - Showing close family tie of the Filipinos and giving importance to extended Family feature in the Philippines.
c. Enrollment - Preparation for the opening of class in the Philippines which commonly falls on first week of June.
6. June - a. Wedding Month - Marriage binds Filipino family as basic unit of community. Thousand of pesos should be prepared in marrying your dream woman just to show your endless and unconditional love to your PARALUMAN.
7. July - a. Extension of Wedding Month
b. School Expenses
8. August - a. School Expenses
b. Arrival of natureal calamities like typhoons
9. September - a. Preparation for semestral closing
b. Arrival of natureal calamities like typhoons
10. October - a. Octoberfest - a month of festive celebration for patron saints which needs additional budget for the catholic family just to express their beliefs and faith to their saint patrons.
11. November - a. All souls day and all saints day - another religious practice in the Philippines about giving importance to the souls of their family members who passed away. They usually prepare foods in tombs for the dead and conduct prayer for the souls in porgatory, which also need budgetary requirement for family members.
12. December - The most expensive month, a whole month celebration of Christmas Day, a day of sharing love, giving gifts, forgiveness, street caroling(asking for a gift by means of singing), designing of Christmas lights and Chrismas trees, reunion, food and drinks festivity and other expensive activities.
13. Birthday Celebrations, Vices, Gambling, Daily drinking of Liquor, Night life activities, health conditions, calamities, Government official corruption, population increase,and majority are SOCIAL CLIMBERS.
I am not directly attacking any religious beliefs, traditions and activities my point is " The choice is yours, if you (the filipinos) can sustain with this yearly activities which do not affect your economic status then go, but if you are just trying to be "in" or just relying your resources through lending, pawning, and borrowing money just to protract all these annual activities then control yourselves, cause majority are keep on attacking the government why Filipinos are suffering economic crisis."But try to weigh the reasons I posted here". Who is our life captain is it the government or is it ourselves? Or Filipinos are just hiding their own faults and look for other to be blamed? Are you a contributor to Philippine economic declination or a contributor to our country's development?
Just try to imagine the Filipino author of this link E book, on how he contributed not only in the Philippines, But in the whole wide world.
