Culture

Smoke from the last firecrackers of New Year’s eve still lingers in the air when preparations for festivals and fiestas in the Philippines start getting underway. In Manila a 9-day novena to the Black Nazarene, enshrined in the Quiapo church in Manila, whose feast day is in early January actually starts on January 1st.  

It is an integral part of the cultural values of the Filipinos to take care, honor and protect their elders.  In general, grandparents and sometimes great grandparents constitute part of the Filipino nuclear families.

(This is sponsored content by Heritage Gardens Cemetery.) 
November 1^st or All Saints Day is a Christian holiday to honour all the saints. For Catholics, it’s a holiday of obligation.  For Filipinos, it is a holiday to commemorate all their family members and friends who have passed away. It is a red letter day on the calendar which means there is no school or work on this day.

Filipinos celebrate the longest Christmas season in the world.

 It starts on September 1, when the months of year begin to end in ‘ber’, as in Decem’ber’, and lasts until the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6 the following year.

When I was growing up in the Philippines, our family did not have a Christmas tree during the holidays.

What we always had on our windows were home-made brightly lit star-shape Christmas lanterns called parol from the Spanish word for lamp, farol.

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” Norman Vincent Peale

 Filipinos love to celebrate fiestas or festivals.

Named after the Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, Sentro Rizal (Rizal Centre) was established by Republic Act 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 to promote Philippine arts, culture and language around the world.

Now on its sixth year, the Winter Escapade Tour will highlight the culture, heritage and history of Batangas and the natural beauty of El Nido in Palawan.

Vancouver-based Kababayang Pilipino of British Columbia headlines this year’s Scotiabank Dance Centre Open House on September 15 with a special hour-long matinee performance at 2 p.m.

It’s called the Philippine Arts and Social Sciences in the Ontario Curriculum, or Passoc for short.

For Filipino ears, Passoc sounds like the Tagalog word pasok, which means ‘to enter’, and indeed it’s already in.

(Editor’s note: Since our April 1-15 edition is coming out on Easter Sunday, Canadian Filipino Net wishes to greet our readers A Happy Easter with an article about the observance of Holy Week by one of the most active Catholic parishes in British Columbia with a significant number of Filipino parishioners.)

The 40-day period of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with 1.2 billion Catholics around the world observing the season which culminates in Easter Sunday.