Filipino Tradition and Beliefs

Our culture and tradition are a big reflection of our complex history. We have a variety
of races that contributed to our customs and tradition. Family bonding is very important to
every Filipino. When children or young people greet first or say goodbye to elder people
especially to their grandmother and grandfather, they typically taking the hand of the elder
with their right hand and touch the elder’s hand softly through forehead. It is a kind of showing
respect to elders through saying “mano po” and for them it was a blessing when children will
say “mano po” to elder. (Abundo,2015)
Moreover, during festival in the month of May that was commonly called Santa Cruzan
with pagan origins but portraying strong Christian symbols. On the other hand, regarding
values, Filipinos are resilient because they always know hoe to manage to rise above challenges
such as typhoon and calamities, they tend to keep themselves up and smiling. More popularly
known as “bayahihan” is when the Filipinos united as one and helping one another without
expecting in return, thus their task and responsibilities become much easier. Sometimes this is
called the community spirit. Filipinos are also loves having fun and having a party because they
love celebrating big occasion or celebration such as fiesta and festivals. To name a few,
Marinduque is my province and we have its own Moriones Festival depicting the events that
happened to our beloved God before. While Bacolod has its Masskara Festival and Davao has
its Kadayawan Festival. (Dumaraos, 2018) The Philippines has a diverse and blended mix of
beliefs due to the precolonial past and long history of colonization that strong influence its
culture and traditions. A very common line used by Filipinos when knocking on someone’s door
is “Tao (person) po! “. Many assume it refers to the knocker calling out to ask if there are any
people inside, when actually, it is said to stem from the knocker reassuring the people inside
that s/he is a person and not a possibly harmful supernatural creature. Moreover, the common
superstition in marrying was called “SUKOB”, when the siblings should not marry within the
same year as it is said to divide the luck between the two and it was known that there will have
death of any immediate family member. Pushing it to continue will results into bad luck.
Another wedding related belief is when the bride should never try on her wedding gown before
their big day because doing so will bring a bad luck and can leads to early separation and
cancellation of the union with their partner. (Escalona, 2018)

References
(2020, March 30). Retrieved from https://www.outsourceaccelerator.com/articles/filipino-
traits-and-values/
Abundo, C. (2015). Filipino Customs and Traditions. 1.
Escalona, K. (2018). 9 Superstitions Many Filipinos still believe.
Thomas, A. J. (2020). Filipino Culture and Traditions. Retrieved from
https://family.lovetoknow.com/cultural-heritage-symbols/filipino-culture-traditions