Philipines

PHILIPPINES
FULL NAME: Officially known as the Republic of the Philippines
CAPITAL: Its capital city is Manila.
LOCATION: is an island nation consisting of an archipelago of 7,107 islands located southeast of Asia. The shorter distance to the west coast of the Pacific Ocean is about 1210 km.
Bordered on the east by the Philippine Sea, the west by the South China Sea, and south by theCelebes Sea. To the south are the Moluccas and Sulawesi in Indonesia, Malaysia southwestern part of Borneo and directly north is Taiwan. The Philippine Islands are between 116 ° 40 'and 126 ° 34' E longitude and 4 ° 40 'and 21 ° 10' N latitude.
TYPICAL FOOD: Philippine cuisine consists of the foods, preparation methods and eating customs found in the Philippines. The style of cooking and the foodsassociated with it have evolved over several centuries from its Malayo-Polynesian origins to a mixed cuisine with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian influences adapted to indigenous ingredients and the local palate.
Filipinos traditionally eat three main meals a day: agahan or almusal (breakfast), tanghalían (lunch), and hapunan (dinner) plus an afternoon snack called meriénda (alsocalled minandál or minindál). Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to the elaborate paellas and cocidos created for fiestas.
Popular dishes include lechón (whole roasted pig), longganisa (Philippine sausage), tapa (cured beef), torta (omelette), adobo (chicken and/or pork braised in garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar or cooked until dry), kaldereta (meat intomato sauce stew), mechado (larded beef in soy and tomato sauce), pochero (beef in bananas and tomato sauce), afritada (chicken or pork simmered in a tomato sauce with vegetables), kare-kare (oxtail and vegetables cooked in peanut sauce), crispy pata (deep-fried pig's leg), hamonado (pork sweetened in pineapple sauce), sinigang (meat or seafood in sour broth), pancit (noodles), and lumpia (fresh orfried spring rolls).
MUSIC:
Traditional music:
Kulintang
Kulintang refers to a racked gong chime instrument played in the southern islands of the Philippines, along with its varied accompanying ensembles. Percussive bossed gong ensembles without a melodical gong rack, known as Agung, are played throughout most of the islands by indigenous groups (such as the Mangyan, Lumad, Batak, Tagbanwaand Aeta) as well as historically by low-land groups such as the Bisaya, Bicol and Tagalog, yet the kulintang ensembles themselves are only played by groups which were Islamized and engaged in international trade with its neighbors in Southeast Asia. The kulintang instrument itself could be traced to either the introduction of gongs to Southeast Asia from China from before the 10th century CE, ormore likely, to the introduction of bossed gong chimes from Java in the 15th century. Nevertheless the kulintang ensemble is the most advanced form of music from before the late 16th century and the legacy of hispanization in the Philippine archipelago.
The tradition of kulintang ensemble music itself is an regional one, predating the establishing of borders between the Philippines, Indonesia andMalaysia. It transcends religion, with animist and Christian ethnic groups in Borneo, Flores and Sulawesi playing kulintangan; and Muslim groups playing the same genre of music in Mindanao, Palawan and the Sulu archipelago. It is distantly related to the Gamelan music orchestras of Java and Bali, as well as the musical forms in Mainland Southeast Asia, mainly because of the usage for the samebossed racked gong chimes that play both melodical and percussive parts.
Harana and Kundiman
The Harana or Kundiman is a lyrical song made popular in the Philippine Islands, which dates back to the Spanish period. Composed in the Mexican-Spanish tradition, the music is characterized by a minor key at the beginning and shifts to a major key in the second half. Its lyrics depict a romantic theme,...