When I went to the Philippines in 2010 with my family, it was eye opening.
It was my first time there.
I had had VAs working for me since 2005. Meeting them was AMAZING!
But seeing the culture and feeling the warmth of the people was the real win for me.
People always assume that I travel there all the time.
Nope.
I’m a home body. Traveling away from my family…I don’t like it.
So there’s a lot of culture and tradition in the Philippines I only know about because my VAs have told me. I haven’t personally experienced it.
In the coming days I’m going to educate you about Christmas and New Years and the time in between and how the Philippines experiences it.
It’s important because it’s different than where you live.
Here’s what one of my VAs wrote (un-edited).
It’s interesting that she feels like “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is overplayed. I think it is…but how does she know that?
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I know in the US, the song that gets overplayed during the season is “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey.
Here in the Philippines, it’s Jose Mari Chan’s “Christmas In Our Hearts”.
Jose Mari Chan’s career as a singer/songwriter is actually an interesting one. He’s a businessman, first and foremost. He knew what people really liked. So when he started writing songs, they were mainly commercial jingles.
He rose in popularity in the 90s when pop songs and adult contemporary dominated the airwaves. It waned in the 2000’s but his career never really died because his songs, his Christmas album especially, was really timeless and classic.
In the past 5 years, his career experienced a resurgence because people started creating memes about him. He started doing commercials and concerts again. Christmas isn’t complete without Jose Mari Chan. And you know it’s Christmas when you hear a Jose Mari Chan song.
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More to come.
John