One distinct feature of most pre-Hispanic pagan Filipino cultures and societies is an affinity for water. We loved water then and it still shows today in our fiestas and daily lives. Our pagan brethren's repeated daily bathing even scandalized early Catholic missionaries. We already believed in ablutions. To that was added absolution by baptism. It was...natural.

Philippine society was built through waterways. Our connection to water is enshrined in "barangay", a term derived from the historical balanghai which were the hollowed out boats that our migratory ancestors used to travel to the Philippines. We did not come in waves of migration. Far from it.

Instead, it was slow, but not so steady. It was dangerous and it was intrepid. We are descended from explorers and adventurers. It's in our blood.