Birthday!
As we’ve explained before, the mananita (early morning birthday serenade) is our favorite Waray-Waray tradition. Knowing this and because of our past participation, the mananita troupe from our work arrived bright and early on Easter morning to sing Brandon’s 28th birthday praises.
As the tradition goes, the group sang outside our front door, complete with guitar, still in the early a.m. darkness, until Brandon came outside (and pretended to be surprised). [We say ‘pretended’ because the celebrant is expected to prepare a meal ahead of time for all the singers!]
The group came in, showered him with songs about how awesome he is, and then ate a simple buffet breakfast. We prepared the traditional mananita fare: pansit, boiled eggs, sliced white bread, chiffon cake, coffee and hot chocolate. After they left, we definitely had some fuzzy feelings, realizing that we’ve made some solid work friendships since being here and we’re making some headway on the cultural integration front.
[Outdoor serenade – 4:30am]
[ ‘Surprise!’]
[After the surprise outside, the singers come inside and the music continues. There’s a standard list of songs, which end with the traditional ‘happy birthday.’ Sometimes the guitarist also takes requests after the meal.]
[No celebration is complete without the cha cha. The cha cha partner here is Virgie, Brandon’s officemate.]
[Another important tradition: on your birthday here, you provide a snack for your office. It’s the complete opposite of the US tradition, where the birthday boy or girl gets gifts, a cake, etc – here it’s your big day to provide food and entertainment for friends and family. Ice cream is a popular bday treat, but expensive here and outside our PC budget. So we brought a classic Filipino mid-afternoon snack of spaghetti and coke.]
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