To understand the history of the Philippines, click on this link:
http://pinas.dlsu.edu.ph/history/history.html
Learn about Manila:
http://www.philippine-islands.ph/en/national_capital_region-philippines.html
Philippine Cuisine
The Filipino cuisine combines Spanish-Mexican,
Chinese, Indian, Japanese and even American influences that have
affected the regional cuisines of different ethnic groups in the
Philippines.
Seafood is one of the staple foods of the Philippines. Fish and
vegetables are the simplest case and is often part of every meal. Fish
is simply roasted and eaten with rice. For larger fish, it is usually
prepared as sinigang na isda (a sour soup), paksiw (simmered fish with
pepper and vinegar) or inihaw (grilled fish). Shrimp, crab and lobsters
are expensive, while shellfish is traditionally considered as poor man’s
food. The equally popular bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) is a dish
that is rejected by European visitors because of its intense smell.
Philippine national food: Pansit
Photo:Joybell Deloy / AP | ||
Chinese origin foods include pastries filled with meat or vegetables (Siopao). On birthdays, noodles (Pansit), which symbolizes long life, is served. Spring rolls (Lumpia) or the small Lumpiang Shanghai (Shanghai Lumpia) are also of Chinese origin. Arroz caldo (rice with chicken), although with a Spanish name, is also due to Chinese influence.
Dishes such as Spanish ensaymada (sweet butter pastry with cheese) and pan de sal (bread rolls) are often served as snack (merienda). Hopia (pastry with bean paste), Pancit canton (stir-noodles) and rice cakes like puto or bibingka are also famous. Puto is often eaten with dinuguan (a soup made of pork and blood). Another very popular snack is the Balut. It is a cooked fertilized duck egg.
Main beverage with meals is clear water, but this is more and more displaced by soft drinks. More expensive imported wine is generally consumed only by the affluent population. Other strong alcoholic drinks include tuba, the fermented juice of the coconut palm; Basi and Lambanog-spirits, which are made from rice or palm trees; and the milder rum from sugar cane.
Somebody with a European taste has to get used to the intensive use of sugar in many Filipino dishes. Even a world-renowned ketchup manufacturer had to exclusively increase the sugar content of ketchups to be sold in the Philippines.
Because of the Spanish and American influences, spoons and forks are used as eating utensils, however no knives are used. In the rural areas, eating by hand (kamayan) is still predominant especially with traditional snacks.
Culture of the Philippines
Philippines is a country that contains different
cultures and influences. Most of these influences are results of
previous colonization and derived mainly from the cultures of Spain and
the United States. Despite the visual Hispanic and Western influences,
the older Asian aspects of Filipino culture are seen through the way of
life, beliefs and customs of the people.
The Philippines is one of the two predominantly Roman Catholic
nations in Asia-Pacific, the other being East Timor. Over 90% of the
Philippine population are Christians, about 5% are Muslims and the rest
either practice other religions or practice no religion at all. The early music of the Philippines featured a mixture of indigenous, Islamic and a variety of Asian sounds. Spanish settlers and natives played a variety of musical instruments including, guitar, ukulele, violin, trumpets and drums. They performed songs and dances to celebrate festive occasions. Modern day Philippine music features several styles. Most music genres are contemporary such as Filipino rock, hip hop and other musical styles. Philippine folk dances include the Tinikling and Cariñosa.
The Nipa Hut or Bahay Kubo is the typical form of housing of the early Filipinos and until now in remote areas. It is characterized by the use of simple materials such as bamboo and coconut as the main sources of wood. The Spaniards introduced stones as housing and building materials. Spanish architecture can be found in Intramuros, Vigan, Iloilo and other parts of the Philippines.
The Philippines is considered as the melting pot of Asia. Eating out is a favorite Filipino pastime. A typical Pinoy diet consists at most of six meals a day. Rice is a staple in Filipino diet and it is usually eaten together with other dishes. Filipinos regularly use spoons together with forks and knives; some also eat with their hands. Popular dishes in the Philippines are adobo which is a meat stew made from either pork or chicken; lumpia, a meat or vegetable roll; pancit or noodle; and lechon or roasted pig. Some interesting delicacies are balut which is a boiled egg with a fertilized duckling inside; and dinuguan which is a soup made from pork blood.
Traditional Filipino games include yo-yo, piko, patintero, bahay kubo, pusoy and sungka. Popular sports in the Philippines include basketball, boxing, billiards, chess, volleyball, bowling, horse racing and cockfighting.
The school year in the Philippine starts in June and ends in March, with two-month summer break from April to May, two-week semestral break in October and Christmas’ and New Year’s holidays. Philippine students enter school at about age four, starting from nursery and kindergarten, followed by a six-year elementary education; four years in high school; and three to five years in college or university.
History of Religion in the Philippines
Jack Miller, 1982
The Philippines proudly boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia. More than 86 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 6 percent belong to various nationalized Christian cults, and another 2 percent belong to well over 100 Protestant denominations. In addition to the Christian majority, there is a vigorous 4 percent Muslim minority, concentrated on the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan. Scattered in isolated mountainous regions, the remaining 2 percent follow non-Western, indigenous beliefs and practices. The Chinese minority, although statistically insignificant, has been culturally influential in coloring Filipino Catholicism with many of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
The pre-Hispanic belief system of Filipinos consisted of a pantheon of gods, spirits, creatures, and men that guarded the streams, fields, trees, mountains, forests, and houses. Bathala, who created earth and man, was superior to these other gods and spirits. Regular sacrifices and prayers were offered to placate these deities and spirits--some of which were benevolent, some malevolent. Wood and metal images represented ancestral spirits, and no distinction was made between the spirits and their physical symbol. Reward or punishment after death was dependent upon behavior in this life.
Anyone who had reputed power over the supernatural and natural was automatically elevated to a position of prominence. Every village had its share of shamans and priests who competitively plied their talents and carried on ritual curing. Many gained renown for their ability to develop anting-anting, a charm guaranteed to make a person invincible in the face of human enemies. Other sorcerers concocted love potions or produced amulets that made their owners invisible.
Upon this indigenous religious base two foreign religions were introduced -- Islam and Christianity -- and a process of cultural adaptation and synthesis began that is still evolving. Spain introduced Christianity to the Philippines in 1565 with the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. Earlier, beginning in 1350, Islam had been spreading northward from Indonesia into the Philippine archipelago. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Islam was firmly established on Mindanao and Sulu and had outposts on Cebu and Luzon. At the time of the Spanish arrival, the Muslim areas had the highest and most politically integrated culture on the islands and, given more time, would probably have unified the entire archipelago. Carrying on their historical tradition of expelling the Jews and Moros [Moors] from Spain (a commitment to eliminating any non-Christians), Legaspi quickly dispersed the Muslims from Luzon and the Visayan islands and began the process of Christianization. Dominance over the Muslims on Mindanao and Sulu, however, was never achieved during three centuries of Spanish rule. During American rule in the first half of this century the Muslims were never totally pacified during the so-called "Moro Wars." Since independence, particularly in the last decade, there has been resistance by large segments of the Muslim population to national integration. Many feel, with just cause, that integration amounts to cultural and psychological genocide. For over ten years the Moro National Liberation Front has been waging a war of secession against the Marcos government.
While Islam was contained in the southern islands, Spain conquered and converted the remainder of the islands to Hispanic Christianity. The Spanish seldom had to resort to military force to win over converts, instead the impressive display of pomp and circumstance, clerical garb, images, prayers, and liturgy attracted the rural populace. To protect the population from Muslim slave raiders, the people were resettled from isolated dispersed hamlets and brought "debajo de las companas" (under the bells), into Spanish organized pueblos. This set a pattern that is evident in modern Philippine Christian towns. These pueblos had both civil and ecclesiastical authority; the dominant power during the Spanish period was in the hands of the parish priest. The church, situated on a central plaza, became the locus of town life. Masses, confessions, baptisms, funerals, marriages punctuated the tedium of everyday routines. The church calendar set the pace and rhythm of daily life according to fiesta and liturgical seasons. Market places and cockfight pits sprang up near church walls. Gossip and goods were exchanged and villagers found "both restraint and release under the bells." The results of 400 years of Catholicism were mixed -- ranging from a deep theological understanding by the educated elite to a more superficial understanding by the rural and urban masses. The latter is commonly referred to as Filipino folk Christianity, combining a surface veneer of Christian monotheism and dogma with indigenous animism. It may manifest itself in farmers seeking religious blessings on their rice seed before planting or in the placement of a bamboo cross at the comer of a rice field to prevent damage by insects. It may also take the form of a folk healer using Roman Catholic symbols and liturgy mixed with pre-Hispanic rituals.
When the United States took over the Philippines in the first half of the century, the justifications for colonizing were to Christianize and democratize. The feeling was that these goals could be achieved only through mass education (up until then education was reserved for a small elite). Most of the teachers who went to the Philippines were Protestants, many were even Protestant ministers. There was a strong prejudice among some of these teachers against Catholics. Since this Protestant group instituted and controlled the system of public education in the Philippines during the American colonial period, it exerted a strong influence. Subsequently the balance has shifted to reflect much stronger influence by the Catholic majority.
During the period of armed rebellion against Spain, a nationalized church was organized under Gregorio Aglipay, who was made "Spiritual head of the Nation Under Arms." Spanish bishops were deposed and arrested, and church property was turned over to the Aglipayans. In the early part of the 20th century the numbers of Aglipayans peaked at 25 to 33 percent of the population. Today they have declined to about 5 percent and are associated with the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. Another dynamic nationalized Christian sect is the lglesia ni Kristo, begun around 1914 and founded by Felix Manolo Ysagun. Along with the Aglipayans and Iglesia ni Kristo, there have been a proliferation of Rizalist sects, claiming the martyred hero of Philippine nationalism, Jose B. Rizal as the second son of God and a reincarnation of Christ. Leaders of these sects themselves often claim to be reincarnations of Rizal, Mary, or leaders of the revolution; claim that the apocalypse is at hand for non-believers; and claim that one can find salvation and heaven by joining the group. These groups range from the Colorums of the 1920s and 1930s to the sophisticated P.B.M.A. (Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association, headed by Ruben Ecleo). Most of those who follow these cults are the poor, dispossessed, and dislocated and feel alienated from the Catholic church.
The current challenge to the supremacy of the Catholic church comes from a variety of small sects -- from the fundamentalist Christian groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists, to the lglesia ni Kristo and Rizalists. The Roman Catholics suffer from a lack of personnel (the priest to people ratio is exceedingly low), putting them at a disadvantage in gaining and maintaining popular support. The Catholic church is seeking to meet this challenge by establishing an increasingly native clergy and by engaging in programs geared to social action and human rights among the rural and urban poor. In many cases this activity has led to friction between the church and the Marcos government, resulting in arrests of priests, nuns, and lay people on charges of subversion. In the "war for souls" this may be a necessary sacrifice. At present the largest growing religious sector falls within the province of these smaller, grass roots sects; but only time will tell where the percentages will finally rest.
For a Site Map With Detailed Information About the Philippines, Click on This Link:
http://www.philippine-history.org/sitemap.htm