This photo was taken 20 years ago from my school yearbook. In here, you can see us wearing our traditional Filipino clothing. For men, it is the Barong Tagalog - Dark colored slacks (usually black) and long sleeved shirts made from Pineapple fiber. The ladies are wearing long floral dresses with matching panuelo or a shawl made of crisp fabric to create the shape above.
Both are influenced by the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines and has been chosen to be our national costume, thus used during Philippine heritage events and folk dances in schools and events. Unlike the ladies' Maria Clara dresses, the men's Barong Tagalog is also worn on formal events by men especially during weddings.
This photo is related to an article I posted today on my personal blog about my life-long friends. Do check it out on Stevenson Que Blog.
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This post is part of Timeless Thursdays. You can click on the link below to visit or join this linky and share your Timeless treasures whether they may be photos or thoughts.
You are too shy Stevenson. You do not say which one is you? I think first or third on the right hand side of the picture? What a small class of friends you enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteHahaha Phil you had me laughing with your comment! I am actually the fourth from right but those are close guesses! Hahaha The first on the right lives here in town but the third one now lives in London with his wife :)
DeleteYou are right Phil! We were just 19 in the class, 2 more boys not part of the dance performance.
Actually, I will also ask which of you in the photo ... it turns out it has been asked first by Phil 😁
Delete...I find it interesting to see the culture of different countries and to see how colonialism has shaped the culture.
ReplyDeleteWe are the same Tom :) The Philippines has been under Spanish rule for 333 years but since we have been under American rule for almost half a century and that was the latest imperialistic influence, we are greatly influenced by the Americans in our culture and how English because a native tongue for most of us aside from our Filipino Language.
DeleteAre you in the photo above? I have been trying to see if I think one of them is you.
ReplyDeleteHahaha Yes I am Rose :) I am the fourth from right. I look so different hahahaha
DeleteThat is the one I thought was you...at first I thought maybe the first on the right, but then looked at the other pic on your other blog and thought no, maybe the 4th.
DeleteHello, what a great school picture. The girls look lovely in their dresses and the boy are handsome. Enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Eileen! If I'm not mistaken, They wore red dresses with orange flowers in it as prepared by our class adviser :)
DeleteWhat a treasure that photo is ~ Stevenson (is that what they call you or Steve?) ~ The females seem to look much older than the males ~ and fascinating to see and here about ~ I wonder now how influential Americans will be due to the terrible President and conditions he has created ~ sad ~
ReplyDeleteBe Well, Be Safe,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
You can call me Steve or Stevenson, Carol :) People here call me Steve but my bosses in the US call me Stevenson. Great observation! My female classmates were all so tall during those times and we only outgrew them during Junior and Senior high school years :)
DeleteOh I very much agree with you Carol. But still America has a lot of great people just like you my friends, who make your country a good one :)
Colonialism has shaped cultures and yet taken away from cultures. Nice that you shared today, but which one is you?
ReplyDeletethat is very true Michelle! hahaha I am the fourth from the right the one who don;t look so happy about our performance HAHA
DeleteBeautiful Picture, these old pictures are connected with so many happy memories from past. the moment I saw your pic I started remembering about my school days. . . Stevenson Have a Nice and Safe Day. . . :)
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you like it and made you think about your school days as well Manav! Have a great weekend soon Manav!
DeleteVery special are the long sleeve shirts of pineapple fiber ... I have never seen a fabric of pineapple fiber. Is absurd to ask if the shirt smells like pineapple! LOL Are you the sixth boy in the row from left to right?
ReplyDeleteOh it is quite special Ella! Oh not an absurd question my dear Ella, but no they do not. They smell woody because the fibers come from the Pineapple leaves :) And another good thing about it is it never smells bad as long as you let it air dry before keeping it because we seldom wash the Barongs, not unless we dry clean it. But to preserve its look, it should seldom be washed so we wear an undershirt for it :)
DeleteYou got that right Ella haha that is me :)
Beautiful picture, Stevenson! And I spot you, too :-)
ReplyDeleteHmm, always two sides of the story, right.
Here we don´t have uniforms.
Result a) You´re not mates, visibly.
Result b) Some have rich parents and wear Nike and co and are "better" - despite they never worked themselves, likely.
I think your system is better!
Also you can differ "school" - "free time" better.
Some treasures you have there, thank you for sharing!
Hello Iris! I love your realizations so much! They are very much true! Even until college, we had uniforms but some schools in manila, especially those rich universities, they do not have a uniform so you are right, some of them wear expensive clothes everyday and some scholars don't.
DeleteAnd very true about school or free time. You cannot simply cut class and go around town with the uniform, and at the same time, not sneak to a different class because you will be noticed by the teacher easily if on uniform HAHA
What a super photo SQ, I picked you out straight away 😉
ReplyDeleteYays!!! I am so happy you have that eye for detail dear Grace! That one I don't really have so I have hard times distinguishing some friends from their old class photos HAHA
DeleteAmazing pic!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Vademecum Mamy :)
DeleteYour school group looks very smart with the national costume.
ReplyDeleteThe link to your personal blog is not working Stevenson. Have a good night.
Oh my! Thank you so so much for noticing and pointing out Sami! I failed to double check the link :)
DeleteThank you so much for your complements and growing up, I only have very few chances to wear the Barong so when I do, it feels amazing :)
Sorry I am behind commenting. My daughter was here and now she is gone and I am doing catch up. I wanted to say I love this photo. You are all look so fabulous in your traditional outfits. I wish we had something like that here in the US. It creates such culture. Hope you are having a super weekend.
ReplyDelete