Entertainment
Celebrations
The Filipinos see themselves as a fun loving people, and not without reason. On the one hand they are not as biased as many Western people who see every leisure moment as a waste of time. They have much less guilt than Europeans, Americans, or Japanese when not constantly being productive. The conditioning to constant productivity as it is found in typical Western and Japanese minds, anyway only partially benefits the productive person himself and mainly helps those who draw profits from their productivity. Those who draw profits from the productivity of others are the most interested in conditioning the laborer's mind to high productivity.
In people not conditioned by the pressures of a modern industrialized society to be constantly productive, a very healthy human laziness comes into effect. The following observation on the happy Filipinos was made around 400 years ago by Miguel de Legazpi. He meant it as a slam but actually it's rather a compliment.
"More or less gold is obtained from the mines where the natives work. However, they do not work steadily, but only when forced by necessity; for because of their sloth and the little work done by their slaves, they do not even try to become wealthy, nor do they care to accumulate riches. When a chief possesses one or two pairs of earrings of very fine gold, two bracelets, and a chain, he will not trouble himself to look for anymore gold. Any native who possesses a basket full of rice, will not seek for more; or do any further work until it is finished. Thus their idleness surpasses their covetousness."
As the Filipinos are such a fun loving people, the great importance of celebrations especially in rural areas is not surprising. Occasions for the abundance of celebrations in the Philippines are religious, family-related, historical or political. Legally there might only be 11 public holidays. But actually, laborers sometimes do not go to work because of private festivities, and this is generally accepted by employers. Furthermore, in a wise move, the government often declares days sandwiched between a public holiday and a weekend or the day before and following All Saint's Day as special non-working holidays. They might as well, because many people would not report for work anyway.
Legal Holidays
The number of Legal Holidays in the Philippines is not disproportionate to those in other countries. They are:
New Years' Day - January 1
Holy Thursday - variable
Good Friday - variable
Labor Day - May 1
Valor Day - May 6
Independence Day - June 12
National Heroes Day - August 30
All Saints Day - November 1
Bonifacio Day - November 30
Christmas - December 25
Rizal Day - December 30
General election day is a holiday and special election days are, too, when so proclaimed by the President. No alcoholic beverages are sold on an election day.
Fiestas
A Philippine newspaper columnist once explained: "The Philippines is a very rich country, not only in children and beauties, but in seasons, too. Elsewhere they just have 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. We have two more: the fiesta season in April and May, and the holiday season in December."
The Philippines is famous for its communal celebrations, the fiestas. Every barangay (barrio), the smallest political division, of which there are 40,750 in the archipelago, holds an annual fiesta for its particular patron saint or in commemoration of a historical event. Within many barangays there are also sityos (places, locations), many of which have their own fiestas. In addition, each village, municipality and city of which every barangay is part of, has a separate annual fiesta.
While particularly in Manila barangay fiestas have declined in importance, these fiestas are of central importance to the social life of rural Filipinos. People from far away, but having their origin in a provincial place return home to "their" barrio or town to celebrate with old friends and neighbors and to prove that they were successful in the outside world.
On festive occasions, such as fiestas, every household prepares many different dishes of the best food they are able to provide - even if it means borrowing money and placing themselves in debt for the rest of the year. Friends, neighbors, relatives from other places as well as complete strangers wander from house to house to sample the food, visit and exchange news and gossip.
Beauty Contests
With meals and music, fiestas are not so different from similar occasions anywhere in the world. But quite unique is the importance given to beauty contests. However, they are of central importance to the fiesta less because of the admiration, Filipinos pay to beautiful women (and they certainly do), but for the very materialistic reason of financing the fiestas. Weeks in advance of a fiesta, a committee distributes ballots with envelopes to the barrio or town residents for the election of the beauty queen or mutya. When votes in favor of certain unwed girls or women are sent back, these are not counted one by one, but each vote counts as much as there is money included in the envelope. The money is used to finance the fiesta and afterward other projects like beautification of churches or chapels. As beauty is not the criteria of beauty contests in barrios, it is not surprising that at a barrio fiesta the beauty queen is often not the most beautiful of all the women present. But even if actually not so beautiful, the mutyas are much liked by the bachelors of a barrio because obviously they have rich financial backers.
It's a very different matter in national beauty pageants. They receive much attention and the aim is indeed to select the most beautiful of the contestants. International beauty contests are front page news in the Philippines, even if there is no Filipina among the winners or even the runners-up.
Former Philippine beauty queens also have made it in politics. The most famous example is the former First Lady, Imelda Marcos, elected Miss Manila March 3, 1953. And in the parliamentary elections on May 11, 1987, two former beauty queens were among the candidates: Nelia Sancho, "Queen of the Pacific" 1971, for the Senate, and Maita Gomez "Miss Philippines" 1968, for the House of Representatives. Both were less lucky in the parliamentary elections then they were in the beauty contests as they were defeated.
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