Tag Archives: the Philippines

The observance of the Holy Week is part of the Christian celebration of the Lenten season. Traditionally, Lent lasts for forty days, coinciding with the time Jesus spent fasting in the desert. This cycle, however, is calculated differently depending on the Christian denomination. The Holy Week is the last week …

Filipino hard-core mountaineers are understandably infatuated with Mount Guiting-Guiting, the imposing jagged-peaked mountain in the island of Sibuyan in Central Philippines. Albeit shorter than Mount Apo by 900 meters, “G2” is the more physically demanding mountain to climb, putting to test a mountaineer’s mettle and resolve when (s)he is confronted …

As with any culture that is not your own, certain behaviors, practices and habits may be considered odd, weird and even downright bizarre. Filipinos have a fair share of them, and often the source of endless fascination (and even annoyance) by the same people whose culture Filipinos would surely likewise …

As with any culture that is not your own, certain behaviors, practices and habits may be considered odd, weird and even downright bizarre. Filipinos have a fair share of them, and often the source of endless fascination (and even annoyance) by the same people whose culture Filipinos would surely likewise …

For a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines, important days of the Holy Week are national holidays. Maundy Thursday is the first of these Triduum (three days before Easter) holidays. Maundy Thursday 2013 falls on March 28. Community Preparations for Maundy Thursday Households along the “Via Crucis” or the Way …

The Visayas in Central Philippines is home to a handful of nationally-renowned religious and cultural festivals that are considered to be some of the most colorful in the country. On your (first/next) visit to the Philippines, you may want to plan your trip around Visayan festivals to see not only …

As the northernmost province of the Philippines, Batanes is relatively a newcomer in the country’s tourist scene. It is so physically and culturally removed from the rest of the Philippine archipelago that it has a culture – and landscape – not quite Filipino. It is only 190 kilometers south of …

You see it in magazines, postcards and travel brochures: powdery white sand, the bluest of skies, and the clearest of waters. In the Philippines, that tropical dreamland can be anywhere. But Boracay has a special allure because it lives up to the hype. Filipinos are divided as to whether Boracay …