8List.ph
  • News
    • Opinion
    • People
  • Pop
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Books
    • Theater
    • Showbiz
    • Geek
    • Sports
    • Retro
    • Weird
  • Life
    • Health
    • Nest
    • Life-Hacks
    • Food
    • Travel
  • Style
    • Beauty
    • Inspiration
    • Shop
    • OOTD
  • Videos
    • #8MinutesWith
    • Isabuhay Ang Panata
    • 8list Plays
    • 8List Asks
    • 8List Explores
    • 8List Presents
    • 8secs
    • YOUth DECIDE
    • Str8 Up with Delamar
    • Toughest Job 2016
  • Comics
    • H8 Mondays
  • Windowseat.ph
  • Bitesized.ph
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy

 

 

 

8List.ph is published by ID8, Inc.

Subscribe
8List.ph
8List.ph
  • News
    • Opinion
    • People
  • Pop
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Books
    • Theater
    • Showbiz
    • Geek
    • Sports
    • Retro
    • Weird
  • Life
    • Health
    • Nest
    • Life-Hacks
    • Food
    • Travel
  • Style
    • Beauty
    • Inspiration
    • Shop
    • OOTD
  • Videos
    • #8MinutesWith
    • Isabuhay Ang Panata
    • 8list Plays
    • 8List Asks
    • 8List Explores
    • 8List Presents
    • 8secs
    • YOUth DECIDE
    • Str8 Up with Delamar
    • Toughest Job 2016
  • Comics
    • H8 Mondays
  • Windowseat.ph
  • Bitesized.ph

  • Life

Now We See It, Someday We Won’t: 8 Vanishing Filipino Traditions

  • Posted on Jun 17, 2019Jun 17, 2019
  • 5 minute read
  • Reina Bambao
Total
270
Shares
269
0
1

As the world grows smaller, many of our distinct Filipino traditions are being passed over in favour of adapting to whatever the rest of the world is doing. Regrettably, here are 8 Filipino traditions that are rapidly vanishing!


1 – Merienda


Via facebook

Dating back to the Spanish colonial era, merienda is a snack eaten in the afternoon between lunch and dinner. Like tea for the English, this afternoon meal used to mark a special time to put down responsibilities and commune in the middle of the day.

Foodies have called merienda a vanishing tradition. With the entry of global cuisine, traditional merienda fare like kakanin gets passed over in favour of fast food and gimmicky, newfangled restaurants. On top of that, working hours meant to keep up with clients abroad turn our body clock upside down. If you’re a call center agent on the night shift, for example, you’ll probably still be asleep at 3PM. Today’s demanding pace simply leaves no time to sit down for merienda – unless it happens to be a working break.

 


2 – Christmas lights

Via dmitrivalencia on Youtube

Yes, we’re aware it’s June! I distinctly remember Decembers of old though, where every home on the street would try to outdo one another in terms of lawn and window decorations. (If your home had Santa’s sleigh and his reindeer parked on your roof, it meant your family was loaded.) And Christmas lights shopping was A Big Deal – strings of fairy lights from Divisoria, handmade parols from Las Piñas, visits to Policarpio Street in Mandaluyong.

But the older I got, the less lights and reindeer appeared in the windows, likely due to the rising costs of electricity. Now it seems Christmas lights at home are used sparingly (and mostly only indoors, as decking your home in Christmas lights attract hordes of carolers). Today, Filipinos enjoy Christmas lights in public places instead, and the lights shows at Ayala Triangle and Bonifacio High Street are now the new Big Deal.

 

3 – Jeepney art

This picture taken on January 17, 2019 shows jeepneys during rush hour in Manila.   – Hand-painting custom decor on jeepneys adorned with images of everything from Batman to babies, as well as disco lights and chrome wheels, have for decades provided cheap transport for millions. But pollution and safety concerns have led to a modernisation programme, with jeepneys 15 years or older to be taken off the streets by 2020. (Photo by Noel CELIS / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY PHILIPPINES-LIFESTYLE-ART-JEEPNEY,FEATURE BY CECIL MORELLA

Via Rappler

Jeepneys were originally US military jeeps leftover from WWII that were repurposed into public utility vehicles. Since then, they have been an ineradicable part of Filipino culture.

Every inch of a jeepney used to be personalised – the louder and more audacious the design, the better. The body would have paintings or stickers of religious images, pictures of family members, flags of foreign countries or branches of service where the owner previously worked, and characters from Hollywood films and Japanese anime.

However, rising costs mean Filipino jeepney art is fading. CNN prices jeepney customisation at P100,000 – way too much for a jeepney driver who earns only P1,500 a day on average. And with e-jeepneys being pushed in favour of modernisation, Filipino jeepney art might soon fade altogether.

 

4 – Traditional Filipino games

Via Rappler

Only a few years ago, a movie called Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo came out, and while it was pleasantly nostalgic for many adults (and a terrific movie in its own right), it didn’t really bring in the young crowd.

That’s probably because society pushes Western sports and the latest digital offerings on children rather than traditional Filipino games. Traditional Filipino games are still taught in P.E., and kids still play patintero, tumbang preso, sipa, and other laro ng lahi on the streets, particularly in places where technology remains inaccessible. However, in many intramurals and barangay events, Western sports like basketball and volleyball are given more prestige, so children tend to gravitate more towards these sports as they grow up and leave their traditional childhood games behind.

 

5 – Traditional music

No, OPM is certainly not dead, but traditional Filipino folk music might someday be. Our traditional songs have been around since before the arrival of the Spanish, with the music played on indigenous instruments and lyrics centering on rural life and nature.

However, traditional Filipino folk music has never been popular in a mainstream sense, earlier because of the variety of dialects and later because of Americanisation and the access of global pop culture via television. (Can you say colonial mentality?) Like the laro ng lahi, traditional Filipino folk music is considered to be merely for children – much like our version of nursery rhymes – and is in danger of being forgotten.

 

6 – Folk dances

Of course, where there’s music, there’s also dance. The Philippines has plenty of traditional folk dances: pre-colonial dances that celebrated harvests, marriage, war, and daily life; Spanish-influenced dances that honored Christianity and European traditions like waltzes, mazurkas, fandangos; Muslim dances from other Malay countries with their elegant arm and finger movements; tribal dances of indigenous tribes; and rural dances like the maglalatik that tell stories of life in the barrios.

As with music and games, Western styles of dancing are favoured over traditional folk dances. While traditional dances are still performed for show, you aren’t likely to see them being danced in the streets for amusement.

 

7 – Panliligaw

Via SEAsite.niu.edu

Then, harana. Now…hugot. Romance today seems to be about who can win their beloved’s heart by dropping corny one-liners…or otherwise brook sympathy by bemoaning their binasted state. And contrary to choosing your words with care around your beloved, nothing is sacred to hugot culture: everything from current events to taboo topics can be mined for a line.

While we’re free to love the way we want to love (it’s 2019, guys), there was something to be said about the sincerity of old-school ligaw – harana! Love letters! Paninilbihan and pamamanhikan! – that just isn’t present in the crash, burn, then make a meme out of it scene today.

 

8 – Indigenous cultures

Via Project Katutubong Pilipino

We could mourn for the loss of our kakanin and jeepney art and Christmas lights – but those who have the most to lose as the Philippines develops socially and economically are our indigenous groups. These are people who have resisted colonisation for centuries, and have hung on to their traditions and customs despite the press of Western influence.

However, today’s rapid expansion and commercialisation of our lands and natural resources are significantly changing the way our indigenous people live, making it harder and harder for their way of living to stay unchanged. The Lumad, for example, are being chased out of their ancestral lands in favour of investors. As it stands, there are only about 110 indigenous groups remaining in the Philippines.


 

What other local icons you think are in danger of vanishing? Tell us below.

Total
270
Shares
269
0
1
Related Topics
  • filipino culture
  • philippine jeepneys
  • pinoy
  • pinoy customs
  • pinoy traditions
Reina Bambao

Previous Article
  • Nest

8 Pitfalls of Working from Home (And How to Fix Them)

  • Posted on Jun 17, 2019Jun 17, 2019
  • Cristina Morales
View Post
Next Article
  • Pop

8 Local Love Teams We’d Like to Star in a Movie Again

  • Posted on Jun 17, 2019Jun 17, 2019
  • Kyzia Maramara
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Life

8 Essential Things for Your Family Reunion

  • Posted on Dec 13, 2019Dec 13, 2019
  • 8List Editor
View Post
  • Life

Unsolicited Astrology: Time to Believe In Yourself, Kung Kaya Mo

  • Posted on Dec 9, 2019
  • Maan De La Vega
View Post
  • Life

Blocklisted: The 8 People You Should Unfollow This Holiday Season

  • Posted on Dec 6, 2019Dec 6, 2019
  • Cristina Morales
View Post
  • Life

The 8 Dumbest Things You Could Do With Your 13th Month Bonus

  • Posted on Dec 3, 2019Dec 3, 2019
  • Cristina Morales
View Post
  • Life

Unsolicited Astrology: It’s the Last Month of 2019 Pero Ready Ka Na Ba?

  • Posted on Dec 2, 2019Dec 2, 2019
  • Maan De La Vega
View Post
  • Life

Surviving the First Two Years of Marriage: 8 Tips for Newlyweds

  • Posted on Dec 2, 2019Dec 2, 2019
  • Joshua Daniel Bautista
View Post
  • Life

8 Activities That Will Bring Todo Saya to Your Barkada

  • Posted on Nov 29, 2019Nov 29, 2019
  • 8List Editor
View Post
  • Life

Yay! Wednesday | Just BFF Things

  • Posted on Nov 27, 2019Nov 27, 2019
  • Mandy Decena
1 comment
  1. Simon Chv'z says:
    Jun 21, 2019 at 8:10 am

    Po at opo, pagmamano and respect

    Reply

Share your comments: Cancel reply


Get the l8est delivered right to your inbox.

8List.ph
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
Your daily dose of entertaining, useful and informative lists.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Hello!

We use cookies to make sure you get the best experience on 8List.ph. Read more about it here.