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ILLUSTRATION
KIT KAT MAINGAT
Tim Tayag gives you a cheatsheet to
surviving local fiestas this summer and
for the rest of the year
THE FILIPINO FIESTA
Etiquette
Guide
c h i k k a
l a u g h t r i p
Move over,
Jagger, Halloween
was last year!
FIESTAS
in the Philippines are like the sunrise;
there is one every day. There are fiestas for
saints, fiestas for baby Jesus, re-enactment
fiestas, fiestas for carabaos, fiestas for rice —
and the list goes on and on until the break of
dawn. So it is highly probable that you will find
yourself in one, and you might want to learn
what is acceptable behavior. So here is your
quick guide on proper etiquette at a fiesta.
You must eat
This one is pretty obvious but also the most
serious. Fiestas revolve around two main
things: the parade or procession and the food.
You can skip the parade but you can’t skip
eating, unless you want to insult the whole
town. Some of the finer points of eating in a
fiesta are:
• Don’t make a face if the food looks weird or
smells funny.
• Fake it even if you don’t like it.
• Don’t be the first in line at the buffet. When
the host tells everyone to eat, try to have at
least one person in front of you. You don’t
want to look like a
“patay gutom”
(or “hunger games” in English).
• Do not eat the last piece of food on the
serving plate. This is called the “Filipino
piece,” which is offered to the gods of flood
and latecomers.
• Accept the takeout.
Take off your shoes
When entering a Filipino household, it is
customary to take off your shoes. Even if the
host tells you it’s okay to keep your shoes on,
it’s not. Take a look at the feet of the host: he
or she doesn’t have shoes on, right? Neither
should you.
Wear sunscreen and keep
your shirt on
The heat will get to you at some point, but it
doesn’t mean that you have the right to go
shirtless, especially if you’re so pale that you
reflect light. Let the other people enjoy the
parade by keeping yourself decent. The only
exception to this is if you’re part of the Ati-
Atihan; then go ahead and take that shirt off,
and smear black paint all over your body.
Talk but don , t hog
the conversation
Being a foreigner, a lot of Filipinos will be
curious about you. However, they do not
want to hear your autobiography as many
Westerners tend to do when asked simple
questions like, “Where are you from?”, “How
are you?”, and “Can you pass the fish sauce?”
Just answer the question as briefly as possible
and get back to drinking and eating.
Make sure you
,
re at the
right party
Say what? You read that right. There are
hundreds of fiestas all over the country and
many of them involve props — headgear,
masks, body and face paint — so you want
to make sure you’ve brought the right gear
to the right party. Just because you invested
some pesos on last Halloween’s costume party
doesn’t mean you can bring your Scream mask
to the Ati-Atihan. (For starters, it just doesn’t
look that fierce — at these festivals, more is
more; your minimalist warped white mask will
make you look like Casper’s grandfather.)