Culture

The Hispanic influences come largely from the cultural influence of Spain and Mexico. Their influence stands visible in the religious festivals of the Roman Catholic Church. Filipinos hold major festivities known as barrio fiestas to commemorate their patron saints. However, what strikes one right away is the prevalence of Spanish surnames among the Filipinos. However, this was a result of a colonial decree for the systematic distribution of family names and implementation of the Spanish naming system amongst the Filipinos. So, a Spanish surname does not necessarily imply a Hispanic heritage.

American influences us in contemporary pop culture, such as fast-food, music, film, and basketball. Other Asian ethnic groups such as the Chinese, and Japanese influenced the popularity of gambling games such mahjong, jueteng, Filipino martial arts, and other Asian cuisine.

Muslim Filipinos living in the Philippines celebrate their own custom, and tradition. These groups follow a Philippine Islamic culture, and other Muslim recreation such as the Kali, Kulintang, and Gamelan, are used by Islamic groups in the southern islands of Mindanao, and Sulu archipelago.

Filipinos, the term by which people of the Philippines are generally known, descended from the various Austronesian-speaking migrants who came in droves over a thousand years ago from South East Asia. There are various ethno-linguistic groups these Filipinos are divided into. The three major groups are the Visayans, the Tagalogs, and the Ilocanos. They are genetically close to the Taiwanese aborigines, Malays of Indonesia and Malaysia, and the Polynesians.

Then there are Filipino mestizos, a term employed to refer to those who are of mixed indigenous heritage and Spanish or other foreign ancestry form. They are in minority but form an economically and politically important minority.

Filipino (formerly Pilipino) is based on Tagalog and is the official language of the Philippines. In spite of being the national language, only about 55 percent of Filipinos speak the language. In addition to Filipino are about 111 distinct indigenous languages and dialects, of which only about 10 are important regionally.

English is generally used for educational, governmental and commercial purposes and is widely understood since it is the medium of instruction in schools. The Philippines are the third largest group of English speaking people in the world, after the United States and the United Kingdom.

Since English is widely spoken in the Philippines, it is common to hear Filipinos use a mixture English and Filipino words or phrases, known as “Taglish” (a mixture of English and Tagalog), in their everyday conversations. A steadily dwindling minority still speak Spanish, which had at one time been an official language.