Showing posts with label filipino culture. Show all posts
Cord, Viel, Rings, Bride's Maids, How Significant Are They?
It feels like I am the bride to be this May because of the preparations which I am busy on these days. Aside from being the in-charge of the wedding invitation, I am also preparing for the photo and video coverage. The budget is quite tight so we need to hire someone who offers good quality outputs and affordable at the same time.
While on the midst of researching of the entourage, I became curious on the elements of the wedding ceremony. The veil, cord and other stuff, what do they stand for? What are the bride's maids roles? I never thought they really had a role at all, I have been a bride's maid every time my cousins got married but never really realized what's my significance 'til now.
Here are some of the things I found out and cleared my mind with how a traditional Filipino wedding goes and the relevance of those wedding accessories.
Cord and Veil
The Veil is a long white tulle with lace edgings, draped over to the bride and the groom to symbolize "the union of two people 'clothed' as one."
The Cord, a silken rope forming the figure 8 is draped to represent the "infinite bond of marriage."
Wedding Rings and Coins
The Cord, a silken rope forming the figure 8 is draped to represent the "infinite bond of marriage."
Wedding Rings and Coins
A pair of gold wedding rings and 13 gold coins is blessed by the officiating minister during the wedding ceremony for a life of faithfulness and prosperity. The groom and the bride give the rings to each other as they pledge their love and loyalty to one another.
The 13 coins on the other hand is presented by the groom to his bride while pledging his dedication to her welfare and their future children.
Wedding Ring Pillow
White heart-shaped satin pillows with pretty ribbons and lace trimmings is for the presentation of the wedding rings during the wedding ceremony and is carried by the ring bearer during the wedding march.
The 13 coins on the other hand is presented by the groom to his bride while pledging his dedication to her welfare and their future children.
Wedding Ring Pillow
White heart-shaped satin pillows with pretty ribbons and lace trimmings is for the presentation of the wedding rings during the wedding ceremony and is carried by the ring bearer during the wedding march.
Do You Believe in Superstitious or Folk Beliefs?
Superstitious or folk beliefs are common here in the Philippines, in fact, most of the people are living it in their everyday lives. It seemed that every aspect of our lives are based on the beliefs that were passed by our elders and even in this modern world, they still do exist and are influencing out daily lives.
Some of them had been deleted off the record maybe because it has been proven that those aren't really true or that there are no living medical explanations or scientific evidences about those stuffs. As we all know, in this generation, we base things on facts and when we say facts, this needs proven and tested evidences.
Too bad there are still a lot of them that are alive and without us knowing, we are still practicing them.
When I came to the National Book Store in Mango yesterday afternoon, I came upon this book which was entitled "Don't Take a Bath on a Friday". I was intrigued by the book since it somehow relates to the post I published a couple of days ago. It was actually a collection of our most common superstitious and folk beliefs as Filipinos by Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz (I came to wonder how this guy over here is related to our college dean before).
Anyways, I'll enumerate some which I can remember and are pretty famous in our province. In case you can relate to these things written below, alas! you are a true blooded Filipino!
> Sweeping at night will sweep all the good fortunes away.
My grandma first told me about this when I was in grade school and I tried to sweep our floor one night, I was skeptical then and asked her how they are related but eventually followed so not to upset her.
> A pregnant woman who eats twin bananas will bear twins as well.
They said this will never happen if the pregnant woman will split the banana behind her. I can't believe in this one, the theory with how twins happen was explained during our biology class. *Smirk*
> A pregnant woman should step over her husband so he will bear the struggles during pregnancy.
Lol...I can't help but laugh but some of our neighbors back in Bohol had experience this, I can't imagine how. *confused*
> A woman should step on the foot of her husband on their wedding day so he will not mistreat her.
Aha! This really happens, try to observe church weddings on the provinces.
> Do not partake the food eaten by a pregnant woman. If you do, you will either become sleepy, drowsy or sick.
No comment!
> Sleeping with a wet hair will result to blindness.
My grandma always spanks me when I sleep with a wet hair before. I just ignored her because I love sleeping with a wet hair, it's refreshing and I can sleep faster.
> Brides shouldn’t try on their wedding dress before the wedding day or the wedding will not push through.
I remember my cousin telling me about this and she tried to put her wedding dress on to justify the belief, the wedding was a success though! :)
> A lingering black butterfly is a sign that one of your relatives just died.
This always happens but I can't really remember if someone from my clan died. We didn't receive any news.
> A person with a mole on his foot is a born adventurer.
Haha...James has a mole on his foot and he is not an adventurer. Hmmmpf!
> A person with big ears will have a long life.
My neighbors tell us my grandpa has big ears and that he will have a long life. He did live quiet awhile but not more than 100 years.
> If a got a fish bone on your throat, stroke a cat's paw on your throat to loosen the bone.
Some of them had been deleted off the record maybe because it has been proven that those aren't really true or that there are no living medical explanations or scientific evidences about those stuffs. As we all know, in this generation, we base things on facts and when we say facts, this needs proven and tested evidences.
Too bad there are still a lot of them that are alive and without us knowing, we are still practicing them.
When I came to the National Book Store in Mango yesterday afternoon, I came upon this book which was entitled "Don't Take a Bath on a Friday". I was intrigued by the book since it somehow relates to the post I published a couple of days ago. It was actually a collection of our most common superstitious and folk beliefs as Filipinos by Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz (I came to wonder how this guy over here is related to our college dean before).
Anyways, I'll enumerate some which I can remember and are pretty famous in our province. In case you can relate to these things written below, alas! you are a true blooded Filipino!
> Sweeping at night will sweep all the good fortunes away.
My grandma first told me about this when I was in grade school and I tried to sweep our floor one night, I was skeptical then and asked her how they are related but eventually followed so not to upset her.
> A pregnant woman who eats twin bananas will bear twins as well.
They said this will never happen if the pregnant woman will split the banana behind her. I can't believe in this one, the theory with how twins happen was explained during our biology class. *Smirk*
> A pregnant woman should step over her husband so he will bear the struggles during pregnancy.
Lol...I can't help but laugh but some of our neighbors back in Bohol had experience this, I can't imagine how. *confused*
> A woman should step on the foot of her husband on their wedding day so he will not mistreat her.
Aha! This really happens, try to observe church weddings on the provinces.
> Do not partake the food eaten by a pregnant woman. If you do, you will either become sleepy, drowsy or sick.
No comment!
> Sleeping with a wet hair will result to blindness.
My grandma always spanks me when I sleep with a wet hair before. I just ignored her because I love sleeping with a wet hair, it's refreshing and I can sleep faster.
> Brides shouldn’t try on their wedding dress before the wedding day or the wedding will not push through.
I remember my cousin telling me about this and she tried to put her wedding dress on to justify the belief, the wedding was a success though! :)
> A lingering black butterfly is a sign that one of your relatives just died.
This always happens but I can't really remember if someone from my clan died. We didn't receive any news.
> A person with a mole on his foot is a born adventurer.
Haha...James has a mole on his foot and he is not an adventurer. Hmmmpf!
> A person with big ears will have a long life.
My neighbors tell us my grandpa has big ears and that he will have a long life. He did live quiet awhile but not more than 100 years.
> If a got a fish bone on your throat, stroke a cat's paw on your throat to loosen the bone.
LMAO, James and my relatives would tell me to do this but I never had tried it even once.
> If a "dwende" lives in the house and the human owners are treating him well, he gives them wealth or makes their lives easy.
I almost believe on this because a former classmate of mine during my elementary days had lots of money before. But turned out, she has been stealing money from her aunt's purse. What a headache!
> Putting a coin under the shoe when joining competitions to remove stage fright and nervousness.
I had tried this way back when we had our dance contest in high school. I guess it helped but when I think of it, I guess it was just some kinda psychological thing.
> Wearing something red or polka-dots during New Year's Day.
This is something I am conscious of since I was small. I can see my grandparents wearing those polka dots and has a lot of coins on their pockets during New Year's Eve throughout the day because they thought this brings good luck.
> When taking a picture of three persons, the one in the middle will die.
If this is a contest of all beliefs, then this line would be the winner. No more further explanations.
There are actually hundreds if not thousands of them which are still alive and are practiced today. This beliefs had become our culture and are taught to the young ones the same way as how we were informed before.
On the contrary, I was not super exposed to those beliefs when I was young since my mom is a Christian and she don't believe on those things. I then learned about these special tales and talks when I started going to school and met other children. I would laugh at their stories and later refer it to my mom who will laugh louder than I did. She has her own stand but still respects them, it's still a democratic country after all.
How about you? Do you think these are all true?
> If a "dwende" lives in the house and the human owners are treating him well, he gives them wealth or makes their lives easy.
I almost believe on this because a former classmate of mine during my elementary days had lots of money before. But turned out, she has been stealing money from her aunt's purse. What a headache!
> Putting a coin under the shoe when joining competitions to remove stage fright and nervousness.
I had tried this way back when we had our dance contest in high school. I guess it helped but when I think of it, I guess it was just some kinda psychological thing.
> Wearing something red or polka-dots during New Year's Day.
This is something I am conscious of since I was small. I can see my grandparents wearing those polka dots and has a lot of coins on their pockets during New Year's Eve throughout the day because they thought this brings good luck.
> When taking a picture of three persons, the one in the middle will die.
If this is a contest of all beliefs, then this line would be the winner. No more further explanations.
There are actually hundreds if not thousands of them which are still alive and are practiced today. This beliefs had become our culture and are taught to the young ones the same way as how we were informed before.
On the contrary, I was not super exposed to those beliefs when I was young since my mom is a Christian and she don't believe on those things. I then learned about these special tales and talks when I started going to school and met other children. I would laugh at their stories and later refer it to my mom who will laugh louder than I did. She has her own stand but still respects them, it's still a democratic country after all.
How about you? Do you think these are all true?
Oslob Visit
I spent my weekend at the province, since my boyfriend invited me to go there because it was their “barangay’s fiesta” and he was also in a vacation leave. Aside from the Fiesta celebration, they also had another event to celebrate with, it was their lolo's "Tapos", and it’s on this event where in their family and relatives get together to commemorate the first year anniversary of their lost grandfather. This is a native culture for us Filipinos, actually. In Bohol, what I could remember if they talk about "Tapos" is that the family who observes this will prepare food and packed it either in a plastic or something else. The packed meal contains a cup of cooked rice and some viands too. "Bihon" is the most common viand, which I mostly see inside those packed meals. But anyway, in Oslob they don't pack the meal in a plastic and give it to the people in the neighborhood. They just put everything in one table and let everyone get the food from there. This shows an act of hospitalism for me, anyone can get each plate and start picking his own meal.
What I noticed with James Family's event was that there were no outsiders during the celebration. All of them were merely relatives, some were from far places, and I also came to meet his aunt from Manila and his uncle from abroad who's a seaman.
I had taken some pictures during the preparation of the event; unfortunately I was not able to take photos during the actual event.
What I noticed with James Family's event was that there were no outsiders during the celebration. All of them were merely relatives, some were from far places, and I also came to meet his aunt from Manila and his uncle from abroad who's a seaman.
I had taken some pictures during the preparation of the event; unfortunately I was not able to take photos during the actual event.
He is a family friend and a neighbor, I was surprised by how he cooked, and he was using a coconut branch here so to reach the pan without getting so much heat. He was cooking the ingredient for “Dinuguan” or Vampire’s Stew.
In the above photo, they are cooking “Ginamay,” the dish is really tasty. The dominating ingredients are pork and tomatoes. The boy in the photo is Badi, James’ first-degree cousin and the guy who is half naked is James’ mom’s first-degree cousin as well.
I am becoming hungry now by looking this.
This is James’ tita’s husband; he was surprised when I took him a picture so he is smiling here. He is cooking “chicharon” here, this is a simple dish but mind you, this is very tasty. The pork meat is just placed on the pan and he will wait for the meat to become reddish. This is also a way for them to get pork oil. This really has lot cholesterol in it. Hehehe so be careful when you eat this, make sure you have medicines with you.
They would place the cooked ones in a bucket with holes so to rinse the oil.
Some of the viands were already cooked when I woke up so I missed the cooking session, but here are some of them.
Some of the viands were already cooked when I woke up so I missed the cooking session, but here are some of them.
And my all time “paborito”…
We also had “videoke” sessions after eating lunch up to “sawa.” James’ family enjoyed the whole day and made sure everyone had sung to the top of their lungs before the day ended.
We went back to the city seven in the morning the next day. I regret that I was not able to take photos of the remodeled park at the back of their church. But no worries, I will make sure to take photos the next time I will visit the place, soon.
We went back to the city seven in the morning the next day. I regret that I was not able to take photos of the remodeled park at the back of their church. But no worries, I will make sure to take photos the next time I will visit the place, soon.
