More Fun Under The Sun Awaits You in the Philippines, Are You Ready?

With its 7,641 emerald archipelago strewn on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean loaded with 366 days and reasons to celebrate its overflowing festivals, the Philippines is certainly a warm country that offers its flamboyant culture and 113,409,187 radiant smiles to tourists from around the world.

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                        📌 Mabuhay!                            

Mabuhay, and welcome to the Philippines! If other languages have Asalaam Alaikum, Bonjour, Guten Tag, Aloha, Namaste, Dia Dhuit, Salve, Konnichiwa, Annyeonghaseyo, Nin Hao, Ola, Zdravstvuyte, Hola— we in the Philippines have also our own version of ‘Hello’ which is ‘Mabuhay’. However, this vernacular is not only used as a form of greeting, but also transcends even to mean cheers, toast, best wishes, or even good luck! Taken from its root word, ‘buhay’, which literally means, ‘life’, and to make it more fancy and alive, we, Filipinos prefixed ‘ma’, that means ‘to’. Thus, ‘Mabuhay’ denotes, ‘To Live’ or more often translated as ‘Long Live’— a kind of endearing greeting, unique of its own. So, next time you see a Filipino around, just say, “Mabuhay”, and he will give you the sweetest smile you have ever seen in your entire life!

                              (Video Credits: Tourism Philippines / Department of Tourism)                                                                                                                              

📌 Geography.

With its 7,641 emerald archipelago strewn on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, our beloved Philippines [official name (english): Republic of the Philippines / (filipino): Republika ng Pilipinas] looks like a sitting hare in the maritime Southeast Asia region, fencing a total territorial area of 300,000 square kilometres. This magnificent country situated along the west Pacific Ring of Fire, is embraced by four great bodies of water: the Philippine Sea (east), Celebes Sea (south), Sulu Sea (southwest), South China Sea (west), and Luzon Strait (north); while its neighbouring countries include: Palau (east), Indonesia (south), Malaysia (southwest), Vietnam (west), mainland China (northwest), and Taiwan (north). The Philippines follows the Philippine Standard Time which is consistent with UTC +8 (GMT +8). Since our dear motherland is located in the big bodies of water in eastern side of Asia and the Pacific, it got its then spanish soubriquet, “Perla Del Mar de Oriente” or in English, “Pearl of the Orient Seas”, which we still use until this day.

 

📌 Climate and Seasons.

Considering that the Philippines is a part of Southeast Asia, which is in geography the sole zone of Asia that is found in the Southern Hemisphere, our country is perched in between The Tropic of Cancer and The Equator, giving it a sub-tropical equatorial climate. Our paradise island has two major seasons: (1) wet season, which begins in June and ends in November, and (2) dry season, which starts in December and finishes in May. The dry season is then split into: (1) cool dry season, from December to February, which we refer to as the Philippines winter, and (2) hot dry season, from March to May, which we call as the Philippines summer.

 

📌 Language.

Out of more than 120 to 187 mixed languages and dialects in our country, ‘Tagalog’ was then our first language, not until 1987 that ‘Filipino’, which is a standardized version of Tagalog was proclaimed as the national language. In schools and government offices, Filipino is used as an official language together with English. Whether you go buy your refreshments at a ‘sari-sari’ store (a small neighbourhood convenience store) or you fit your Hermes belt at a posh establishment in Metro Manila (the capital city), you can talk with any people around as almost all Filipinos know how to converse in english (not fluent, but at least the basics), so there is no need to fret. In fact, recently, the Philippines is considered to be the top five english-speaking country in the world, where english as the lingua franca.

 

📌 Currency.

The Philippine Peso, stylised as ‘PHP’ or ‘Php’, is the currency of the Philippines. In our language, we often refer to it as ‘piso’, usually referencing to the coins, but is both used for coins and paper bills.

 

📌 Fiestas.

There are 366 days and reasons to celebrate and have fun in the Philippines— be it a birthday, baptism, confirmation, recognition, graduation, weeksary, monthsary, anniversary, engagement, marriage, promotion, or even a pet’s birthday— we are a country full of celebrations! When we celebrate, we not only celebrate, but we also mean, ‘fiesta’, and fiesta means: a big party full of eating, drinking, dancing, singing, and everybody is invited to partake the merrymaking! Every single day, the Philippines has always some exciting things to offer, our calendar is overflowing with festivals from New Year’s Eve up to the dawn of another new year, we always have fun!

Below are just some of the traditional A-list popular fiestas celebrated around the country that trace its roots back to the spanish era:

•         Feast of the Black Nazarene – 9^th of January in the City of Manila

•         Ati-Atihan Festival – month of January in Kalibo, Aklan         

•         Sinulog Festival – 3^rd Sunday of January in Cebu City

•         Dinagyang Festival – 4^th Sunday of January in Iloilo City

•         Panagbenga Flower Festival – month of February in Baguio City

•         Moriones Festival – Holy Week before Easter Sunday in Marinduque

•         Pahiyas Festival – 15^th of May in Lucban, Quezon

•         Pintados Festival – 29^th of June in Tacloban, Leyte

•         Kadayawan Festival – month of August in Davao City

•         Masskara Festival – 3^rd week of October in Bacolod City

•         Higantes Festival – 23^rd of November in Angono, Rizal

 

📌 Best Months To Travel.

The Philippines welcomes each and every visitor any day of the year, every second and every minute spend in this marvellous Pacific string of islands is worth your stay. However, if you are the type of tourist that considers and wants to experience the tropical winter and summer, the best times to fly and feel the warmth of the sun are the months between December and May. The Filipinos guarantee their warm welcome and hospitality from the time you first step foot at the airport then greeted with ‘Mabuhay’ until you say your goodbye and ‘Salamat’ (Thank you) going home. We certainly offer our flamboyant culture and welcoming smiles to tourists from around the world.

 

📌 “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”.

The Philippines is a small country but with the biggest smiles; a lone country in the Southeast Asian region but friends with the world; a thousand islands but singing the same national anthem. All contrasts, old or new, small or big, poor or rich, unpopular or bigwig, exotic or glamorous, laidback or futuristic– you can find here in this teeny-weeny place called, The Philippines, and that is definitely a testament when we say, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”!

 

So, what are you waiting for! Dream. Believe. Fly.

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Some Fun Facts.

🌴  Basking in the Pacific Ocean, The Philippines is the 2^nd largest archipelago in the world (BBC, 2023).

🌴 Having some 36,289-kilometre (22,549 miles) stretched beachfronts, it is the world’s 5^th longest coastline (Sen Nag, 2020).

🌴 Rising to an elevation of 8,077 feet (2,462 metres), the Mayon Volcano is considered as the ‘Most Perfect Cone’ in the world (Rafferty, 2023).

🌴 Plummeting to a depth of 34,580 feet (10,540 metres), the Galathea Depth of the Philippine Sea is the country’s deepest point as well as the world’s 3^rd deepest (MI News Network, 2022).

🌴 Accruing more than 90% of the population as Christians (by which Roman Catholicism shares 86%), the country is considered to be the only Christian nation in Asia (Miller, 2023).

🌴  And of course, The Philippines takes pride of its friendly and hospitable people that own 113,409,187 radiant and warm smiles as of this writing (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affair, Population Division, Worldometer, 2023).

 

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Written By: Felipe III Q. Gali
(Philippines Correspondent)

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#blog #blogger #travel #traveller #travelogue #travelholic #globetrotter #wanderer #wanderlust #dreamdestinations #holiday #vacation #fly #mabuhay #climate #tagalog #filipino #mayon #volcano #philippines #itsmorefuninthephilippines

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Reference List:

BBC, 2023. BBC Travel. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.com/storyworks/travel/a-considered-holiday/an-ancient-tradition-relived-in-ink
[Accessed 16 February 2023].

MI News Network, 2022. 10 Deepest Parts Of The Ocean. [Online]
Available at: https://www.marineinsight.com/know-more/10-deepest-parts-of-the-ocean/
[Accessed 16 February 2023]. 

Miller, J., 2023. Education: Religion in the Philippines. [Online]
Available at: https://asiasociety.org/education/religion-philippines#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20proudly%20boasts%20to,well%20over%20100%20Protestant%20denominations.
[Accessed 16 February 2023].

Rafferty, J. P., 2023. Mayon Volcano. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/Mayon-Volcano
[Accessed 16 February 2023]. 

Sen Nag, O., 2020. Countries With The Longest Coastline - World Facts. [Online]
Available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-coastline.html
[Accessed 16 February 2023].

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Worldometer, 2023. Philippines Population (LIVE). [Online]
Available at: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/
[Accessed 16 February 2023].