![]() By the end of the ceremony, I had a bouquet of 18 roses. Each time one of them came up to me, they would hand me their rose and I could collect them in my hand. During this ceremony, the 18 gentleman lined up and took their turn to waltz with me for about 20 seconds. Instead of girls, I chose 18 of my closest guy friends and male cousins and instead of candles, they each gave me a single rose. The other tradition, called the 18 roses ceremony, is somewhat like the 18 candles, except that it’s for boys. Their speeches meant a lot to me and it showed how much they really cared and reminded me that I am blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people. Each time I received a candle, I would add it to my cake so that by the end of the ceremony, there would be 18 candles on my cake for me to blow out and make a wish. One by one they gave their speech and then handed me the candle. When it came time for the ceremony during the actual Debut celebration, the 18 ladies lined up, each holding a lit candle. One of my friends even decided to write me a little poem about our friendship which was very cute. There aren’t really any rules or guidelines for what the speeches have to be like, so the girls can be as creative as they want to be. So when I sent out my invitations, I sent a special note to 18 of my closest girlfriends, aunts, and female cousins asking that they take part in this tradition. In this tradition, the celebrant chooses 18 female friends and/or family members to prepare a short one to two minute speech talking about their speech for the debutante. In addition to the Cotillion Dance that I talked about last week, there are a couple other traditions surrounding the Debut that I want to share with you.įirst is the 18 candles ceremony. My parents brought 2 of them home after one of our visits now we proudly hang them in our windows every Christmas season. Made with a bamboo frame and plastic filament, these lanterns are the most cherished Christmas decoration in the Philippines. Aside from regular Christmas lights, Filipinos like to display these large, multicolored, star-shaped lanterns around their house. Often times, the owners of a house will give caroling children a few extra pesos in keeping with the Christmas spirit.Ī cultural symbol that I can relate to a little more personally is the Parol (pah-Rol). Not only do the children enjoy making the instruments, but there’s also the added bonus of gaining some money. Plastic tightly secured over a coffee can becomes a drum. Flattened bottle caps strung onto a wire serve as a tambourine. ![]() He said that since many of these children come from poor families, they use recycled material to make instruments for their caroling. Having grown up here in America, I never actually experienced this myself, but I know a few things from the countless stories my dad likes to tell. They form little groups within their neighborhoods and go from house to house singing traditional Filipino carols as well as well-known American ones like Jingle Bells. “Maligayang Pasko!” (mah-lee-guy-ang pahs-ko) This is the Tagalog translation of “Merry Christmas.” The holiday season is upon us so I thought it would be fitting for this week’s blog post to be about Filipino Christmas traditions.Ī popular tradition among the children in the Philippines is caroling.
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