Every country has its own culture. It makes a country unique in the same way that a thumb mark differentiates one person from the other. Why a Chinese uses chopsticks when eating instead of spoon and fork is a question that only culture can answer.

Culture is a vague word that tucks traditions, languages and arts under its wings. It is the soul of the nation. It is intriguing, revealing, and vital in the existence of a society.

A Filipino who eats a roasted pig in a banquet and attempts to know the process of roasting is experiencing hunger that is physical and spiritual in nature. On the other hand, a Filipino who is clad in a western coat and tie and feasts on the luxuries of western lifestyle, but ignorant and unappreciative of his own traditions, values and other related matters is deprived of his very own identity.

Culture mirrors the history of a society. Like wood being rubbed by sand paper, culture is polished by influences from another culture. This holds true with the way a writer manipulates a story or how a painter draws his masterpiece. The same goes in Philosophy, remember that Aristotle learned from Plato, while Socrates influenced the latter.

Whether we like it or not, our beliefs and principles are influenced by a culture enveloped in a society.

Our country is very rich in culture. Most provinces have its own dialect, literature, folk dance, cuisines and other forms of art. Filipinos love to strut their wares in front of spectators. A folk dance, for instance, is a way of showing graceful moments and elegant dress at the same time.

The society's hunger for aesthetic pleasure is the primary reason why indigenous poems, stories, dances, songs, beliefs and games are still present. Other forms of art, such as carvings, paintings and other artifacts are preserved in churches and museums for everyone to appreciate.

Before, most native songs, poems and stories are transferred through word of mouth. Several have been lucky to be transcribed in books, but a number are still being transferred through word of mouth. There is a big danger that forms of literature that are being transferred through word of mouth will die together with the elders who only know them by memory. This is the main reason why our staff decided to contribute to the preservation of our native culture. We have come up with a comprehensive list of things that make us unique from others.

Knowing our own culture is indeed rewarding. It provides a better understanding of ourselves as unique in a diversity of equally unique others who are influencing and being influenced, needing and being needed, depending and being depended on, living and letting live, loving and being loved.