Khrisha Anne A.

Davillo Philippine Pop Culture

BSN 3-5 March 18, 2021
𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞
Popular culture (also called mass culture and pop culture) is generally recognized by members
of a society as a set of the practices, beliefs, and objects that are dominant or prevalent
traditions and aspects of material culture in a certain society. In modern western countries, the
term is used to describe various cultural products (movies, music, art, television, and more) that
the majority of the population regularly consumes.
The Philippines is a country that has varied cultural influences. The culture of the Philippines
comprises a blend of traditional Filipino and Spanish Catholic traditions, with influences from
America and other parts of Asia. The Filipinos are family oriented and often religious with an
appreciation for art, fashion, music and food.
Music
Filipinos are very fond of music. They use various materials to create sound. They love
performing dances (Tiniking and Carinosa) and group singing during festive celebrations.
Religion
The majority of Filipino people practice the Christian religion. Spain highly influenced the
people to the extent that the Philippines became one of the two predominantly Christian
nations in the Asia Pacific, the other being East Timor.
Celebrations
Christmas is one of the most loved celebration by Filipinos. Families and relatives gather on the
24th of December, to celebrate food prepared for “Noche Buena,” a Spanish term which means
“midnight meal” to greet Christmas Day. New Year is another celebration that gathers the
Filipino families. Wearing dotted clothes and preparing round fruits on the table, which
symbolize prosperity, is one of the many customs of the Filipinos.
Sports
Filipinos are not only skilled when it comes to industry but also in sports. The national sport of
the Philippines is called arnis, a form of martial arts.

There are a lot of dishes in the Philippines that lends different experiences to your palette.
Foreign countries have influenced a lot of these dishes. This is due to the fact that traders and
colonizers have visited the Philippines for centuries. The American and Spanish colonizers, and
the Chinese and other Southeast Asian traders influenced and brought about a kaleidoscope in
the Filipino way of cooking.
One of the contributors to Philippine cuisine are the Chinese. Chinese influence on Philippine
cuisine is found in noodle dishes such as bihon, miki, mami, lomi, sotanghon, and miswa. These
are generally called pancit. For instance, in the town of Molo in Iloilo, the Chinese influence on
their type of noodle known as pancit molo is an adaptation of wonton soup with an Ilonggo twist.
For many years that Chinese people interacted with the Filipinos. Many of them even decided to
stay and live with the Filipinos. Chinese contributed to Philippine cuisine a rice cake made from
Philippine ingredients called “hopia”. The making of Hopia was inspired and influenced by the
Chinese rice bean cake. The Chinese usually use rice-bean cakes during special occasions.
Unlike other people in Southeast Asian countries, most Filipinos aren’t fond of eating chili. But
there is a part of the Philippines, the Bicol region, which uses a variety of spices. Like the folks
in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, the people in the Bicol region use chili and coconut milk
for a lot of their delicacies.
When the Spaniards came to Philippines, they introduced the Spanish culture. The many Spanish
colonies often influenced the Philippines in many different ways. Historians say that 80% of the
Philippine cuisine originated from Spanish dishes. For example, Adobo (a well-known Filipino
dish) is actually a Spanish word for sauce. Adobo means marinated sauce for pork (though there
are also other adobo dishes that don’t use pork).
Although Americans didn’t make that much of an influence in Philippine cuisine, they certainly
changed the way Filipinos dine. The Americans introduced fast food to the Philippines. Fast food
chains are now found almost everywhere in the Philippines nowadays and is a favorite among
Filipino children.
These are the influences of many different countries that contribute to Philippine cuisine. That’s
why Filipinos embrace the ideas and influences of the other countries. If it were not for these
influences to Philippine cuisine, there would not be a wonderful array of dishes to delight the
palette.