Fiesta celebrates Philippines' culture

The Macarena has made its way to the Philippines -- or at least it was included in the comedy skit of the "Heestaree ab da Peelapeens" at the second annual Barrio Fiesta Saturday night in Kern Building.

The event, sponsored by the Penn State Filipino Association, included a dinner of different Filipino dishes and entertainment about the Philippines' culture.

Ed Tapan, president of the Filipino Association, said the festival is a religious holiday in the Philippines.

"In the provinces of the Philippines, they call their neighborhoods 'barrios' and once a year they celebrate a religious saint," he said. "Each barrio has a big party with food and dance to celebrate the saint."

- Ed Tapan, president of the Filipino Association

John O'Gorman (graduate-statistics) said the food was well worth the wait.

"The dinner was really good and I enjoyed the different food a lot," he said.

O'Gorman went with Eleanor Tipa (graduate-statistics), who was familiar with Filipino food.

"It pretty much was the same as they have in the Philippines," she said.

After dinner, the room was transformed into an auditorium. The audience clapped as performers skillfully danced traditional Filipino dances to instrumental rhythmic music. Then they laughed at amusing skits.

Although the entertainment included a lot of jokes, comedy and laughs, there was a greater purpose to this event.

"We more or less want to educate the University," Tapan said. "We want to let Penn State and the community know that Filipinos have a voice and need to be heard."

The dances reflected the Filipino culture and showed the performer's agility and skill. In one dance, women balanced baskets on their heads. In another dance, each man and woman balanced a lighted candle representing a firefly on each of their hands and on their heads as they gracefully moved to the music.

Some audience members even tried to show their stuff as they tried the national dance of the Philippines, the Tinikling, where the dancers quickly dance in between two moving bamboo sticks.

Although tradition was present in the entertainment, some performances added a modern twist. Four shirtless men danced the Maglalatik in khaki shorts with coconuts on their shoulders, backs and chests beating in time to the bass-pumping modern dance music. Traditionally, the men would wear loin cloths, but co-host Lillian Thakuria explained the change to the crowd.

"To stay in accordance with the Pennsylvania law, we had to have them wear shorts," she joked to the lively crowd.