Cultural Event #1: Filipino American Student Organization

The Filipino American Student Organization is a club that meets on campus to share in a common interest in the Filipino Culture.  Their president  name is Ted, vice president is Joanne,  and Tiffany, Anna, Sam, Jenny, and John are a few of the members  participating in the night's presentation.  Their motto is “You don’t have to be Filipino, American, or a student to join.” The night’s events consisted of an overview of the organization, a brief background of the Philippines, a cultural dance, and finished with an authentic Filipino meal. Before going to this meeting, I knew very little about the Philippines. A few facts that I learned was that there are 770 islands in the Philippines, 180 different languages, the main religion is catholic, and they were colonized and freed by the Spaniards. As a club on campus, they participate in many different cultural events to inform people about the Filipino culture.

After their presentation, they performed a dance that was called the Tinikling dance. A Tinikling dance is a folk dance imitating the legendarily fast and graceful movements of the tinikling birds as they escaped the bamboo traps set by rice farmers. They performed this dance by hitting bamboo poles on the ground and then together in rhythm as the dancers stepped in and out.

Following the dance, was a cultural dinner called Lumpia. This is basically an egg roll dish with rice and chicken on the side. Most of the Filipino food is fried and is served with rice. The dessert was a coconut and fruit pudding that I didn’t get a chance to try.

I thought the whole event was interesting and well put together for only an hour’s time. I would have liked to have learned about what it is like for a Filipino to have come from the Philippines, and had to adjust to the American culture.

Fuzzy picture taken from my camera phone of the Tinikling Dance.