Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Your Story Blog Hop: Your Favorite Holiday and/or Tradition



Hey, everyone! It feels like I haven't blogged in forever, but it's been a busy, but nice past few days spent mostly with my family. I'll talk more about that in another post, but until then, it's time to get onto the Your Story Blog Hop, number 2!

This week's prompt is pretty self explanatory from the title of this post:

What is your favorite holiday and/or tradition?

If you link up, please feel free to elaborate as much or as little as you like. Of course, me being as curious as I am would love if you did elaborate as much as you can! I can't wait to read all about it!

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Growing up, my favorite holidays were always Christmas and New Year in the Philippines. As a kid I travelled there every year for winter break and my family always went all out. 

For Christmas, when I spent it with my dad's side of the family, I remember going to my cousin's house and we went to the house next door (it was some distant family I was related to by marriage) and I remember there were a whole bunch of different bills of different values in the bag. The uncle who lived there shook the bag around and all the kids had a chance to go up and try to get some money. You can't look in the bag and you can only get one bill, so every kid's dream is to get the most they can from that bag. 

With my mom's family, on top of one large gift exchange at Christmas, there is also loud fireworks and bingo around the time between Christmas and New Year. Those were some of my favorite memories growing up. 

I don't think my family did any traditions that were particularly Filipino growing up. I mean of course we practiced common customs (which I will get more into at another time), and I guess most Filipino traditions are based off Catholicism. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but because I'm not Catholic myself, I don't exactly practice many traditions unless I'm with my family (basically my entire family on both sides are Catholic except me). And many other "traditions" that weren't based off Catholicism I feel like were based off of Chinese superstitions and traditions. Maybe that's just me. 

One of the traditions of a debut: the 18 roses! I got 19 instead!
However, the one Filipino tradition I really loved but never fully got to experience myself was the debut. It is the coming of age party for 18-year-old Filipina girls. I got my own version of it last year thanks to my roommate, so that will do for me. 

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So what are you waiting for? Hoda and I can't wait to hear from you! Before you link up your favorite holiday/tradition, here are some rules to make sure everyone is having a good time!

RULES:

1. Respond to the prompt of the week, sharing as much or as little as you feel comfortable! We encourage using photos and would love to see photos integrated in your posts!

2. Link up! (Make sure you are linking your blog post, rather than your blog!) using the widget below. 

3. We encourage you to read and leave comments for everyone’s posts, but we only require you to do so for the person who linked up immediately before you! 

4. Follow your hosts, Kriselle and Hoda on Bloglovin'. 


5. As an added bonus, your hosts will retweet/share any of your social media posts that you follow and tag us in (Twitter: @hodakatebi and @krisellerhiax) (Facebook: Joojoo Azad ~ Free Bird and Livin' and Lovin'). Don’t forget to use the hashtag #yourstorybloghop!


Livin' and Lovin' Blog

Take our button and link up with us!

This link-up will be open until next Monday, June 16th, at 11:55pm PST, so if you weren't able to link up with us last time, DO IT!


6 comments:

  1. I think your friends throwing you a debut is awesome! I always wanted one but sadly in my area only ones that go on is if your parents belong to a country club.

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  2. Oh I know what you're talking about! Haha actually in my area those are basically non-existent. The way debuts work in Filipino culture is slightly different than those kinds of debuts although the purpose is the same--showcasing a woman into womanhood. And with Filipino debuts, the party is for one person, rather than a few different women. Thank you for visiting the blog!

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  3. I think the whole idea of a debut is so cool! And I'm glad you had your chance at one, even a year late lol

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  4. ItalianBellaDiariesJune 14, 2014 at 6:37 AM

    The debut tradition is cool. I love learning about different cultures.

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  5. Thank you! And thank you so much for joining!

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