#nor5tar

What holidays do you celebrate, besides the standard Catholic ones?

Aside for the Catholic ones, a lot of our local holidays are either birthdays (and deathdays) of famous Filipinos, major historical events, like Independence Day on June 12, the EDSA Revolution on February 25 (though this occurred in the 80s IIRC), and the Day of Valor on April 9, OR more localized holidays about when a province/city got established and such. Honestly these don't have a loooot of special stuff you have to do during that day, unlike Christmas for example. They're not days that you have to Celebrate(tm), but if you're aiming to put your character in a period close to these events, then you could technically give meaning to them :3c Though that'll require a bit more research heh

And I guess on that note, are religious celebrations a big thing? Baptism, patron saint's day, etc

Religious celebrations are def a big deal...Depending on your religion of choice, of course LMAO In the Philippines, Roman Catholic is the biggest religious domination, but there's also a very big Islamic population here especially in Mindanao. There's also INC (Iglesia ni Cristo) that I can't say much on because I'm personally not part of this group, but I think it's a variant on Christianity ?? Anyways, talking as someone who was born in a Roman Catholic household: people spend a lot of time and money into these celebrations. there are festivals for saints, church weddings are a pretty big deal too but I think that's common across a lot of cultures.

Culturally, is there a strong focus on family ties? (Curious bc it's very different on two sides of my own family)

Oh, absolutely! Like it's a thing where people say Asia in general has a lottt of collectivist cultures, and the Philippines is no exception. It's veryyy common for one household to house multiple generations of families, and I've even heard stories from friends where their extended families literally live next to each other in a street/subdivision LMAO There's a lott of focus on listening to your parents and looking out for your family, doing what's best for your family vs what's best for you is an interesting contrast to give to your Phoenix if you choose to go that route. Of course, it differs between families, but I've noticed family-first is a very big thing here.

Do you have any recommendations for figuring out a name for my Phoenix? Are there common trends in naming, resources you know, or anything like that?

Honestly, even I have trouble looking up new Filipino name ideas LOL there's not a lot of resources out there, but I'll still share stuff that I found useful :] BUT FIRST ! The naming trend in general is kind of loose and flexible! I've noticed that English/Spanish first names are very common, then they're either paired with a surname of Filipino/Spanish origin. You don't have to look too far for an example: IEYTD 2 has Chancellor Chelsa (English origin. I think?) Magpantay (Filipino origin) . Filipino first names are harder to come by these days and it's a shame </3 This is also entirely optional but Filipino full names include middle names (your mother's maiden surname) as well! For example, names are usually written like: Jose P. Rizal, with P(rotacio) being Rizal's middle name.*

*little aside, but Rizal's full name is actually much longer... but it's because he lived during the Spanish occupation. You can give your character multiple first names honestly that's also a thing I noticed SDKJFH but Firstname Lastname is usually satisfactory

For traditional Filipino name resources, Behind the Name has a few examples for first names, but you may notice some of them are just literally what they mean - "Ligaya" is happiness, much like how Joy is a name people have LMAO so stuff like that you can use as inspiration :] For my own Phoenix, Adarna is a legendary bird from a traditional epic, so mythological inspos are cool too - unfortunately that stuff is also. SO hard to find for. Fuck colonization lol

FOR traditional surnames, I actually found this webpage really interesting !! The info isn't complete but these are some legit surnames, considering I've seen a lot of them used by people I've met/known. Some of them have regional origins too which is very handy!

I read that English, Spanish, and Tagalog were all the national language at one point - is it common for people to speak all three?

Okay, so this bit HEAVILY relies on the era you want your Phoenix to live through. Spanish was the national language during the Spanish Occupation (from 1565-1898, that's more than 300 years!), but after the PH gaining "independence", spanish was pretty much dropped instantly as a national language...... Mostly because spain actually sold the PH to the US. OOPS !!! LOLLL as an attempt to fully make the PH their "own" thing, the US just kinda swept any Spanish rules and declarations away once they got ahold of the country, including making the Spanish language mandatory. So from 1898 onwards, English and Filipino are the national languages of the PH. Despite Filipino having a lot of Spanish loanwords, Spanish hasn't been declared a national language since then, and thus has never been a required study. Your Phoenix can read the time in Spanish if their parents/grandparents refer to time like that (like my own parents do), but unless they voluntarily study Spanish, they probably wouldn't consider themselves a Spanish speaker from that alone.

So um tl;dr due to politics, it's uncommon for Filipinos to speak all three, unless under special circumstances. If you're going for the common fanon of 1960's, Filipino and English are your best bet.

Also, any sort of miscellaneous cultural things that you can think of would be really helpful! And I guess, if there's anything you think someone writing a Filipino character should know! Stereotypes that should be avoided, anything like that