shame on me!

a friend of mine and i were driving along this street in center city, philly where you can see all the flags of the world lined up and hanging on lamp posts..... i asked him where his country's flag is so he pointed it to me...... i asked him what those colors stand for so he explained it to me..... then he threw the questions back to me and i was caught a little off guard........ i should have seen that coming... lol..... it was embarassing because i wasn't able to answer right away .... but in my defense i was able to explain what the red and blue stands for (red is above the blue one during war time and vice versa during peace time) and what those 3 stars symbolize (luzon, visayas, mindanao)......

then he asked me when our independence day is and i proudly answered "june 12!"..... hah! i do listen to my philippine history teachers you know, hahaha.... and then he asked, what year? oh boy..... why does he has to do that? hahahaha...... anyway, so i was like, "uhmm.... i.... i... don't know? please don't ask me about philippine history, i think i was probably sleeping in class when my teacher discussed that..." and he started laughing......

jeez......

here i am telling everyone and bragging that i love my country........... that we have the most beautiful country (what with all the beaches and mountains and nice friendly people who wouldn't love the philippines!) and here i am not even knowing what the sun in my flag symbolizes....... i'm an embarassment to my country, hehe....

so i did my research.....

the sun represents the dawning of a new era of self determination that was desired in 1897 (when the flag was first designed) after the Spanish-American war and the US promise of independence, which was granted in 1946

the 8 rays on the sun stand for the 8 provinces that rose in revolt against Spanish rule in the late 19th century. (Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac)

the 3 stars stand for the 3 principal geographic areas of the country, Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

the red stripe represents courage and bravery and the blue stripe is for noble ideals.

the white triangle stands for the Katipunan, a revolutionary organization that led the revolt against Spain and the color white represents peace and purity.

this flag is unique in that in peacetime, the blue stripe is uppermost but during wartime, the red stripe is on top.


and oh! aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines on June 12, 1898...... thank you google!