The Department of Tourism’s new slogan is out and everyone is suddenly excited to show the world just what makes it “more fun in the Philippines.” Facebook is rife with unofficial photos that range from the witty to the absurd. One of my favorites is the photo with lechon laid out on the table with the caption: “Planking. It’s more fun in the Philippines.” That just made me laugh out loud.
And also, think. Because really, we don’t always get the chance to think about why things are so much fun in this country. Not with all the political scandals going on and with all the tragedies we’re beset with. But this campaign reminds us to look at the brighter side of life.
I think there are two basic things that make life so much fun in the Philippines: our faith and our sense of humor. And one is inexorably linked with the other. We generally think that holy people are sad people. After all, nobody ever has pictures of laughing saints up on their walls. If we’re lucky, they might be a mysterious smile, but laughing saints? Not the norm. True, photos of laughing icons are more common now than they were before, but they’re generally relegated to the world of pop culture rather than religious art. And so we don’t usually think of Jesus laughing or Mary giggling at a good joke.
But, as one author pointed out, if God really made man in His image and likeness, then it wouldn’t be so absurd to think of God laughing—not at us (that’s just rude) but with us, in our daily conversations and our ironic situations. It wouldn’t be far fetched at all to think of God joking around and having a laugh and enjoying life right along with us.
And that, I think, is the “secret” to the Filipinos’ sense of humor, to why we can rightly claim that things are more fun in the Philippines—deep down, despite what the Western pictures say, the image of a happy and laughing God must be etched in our hearts. We can find joy in the midst of suffering because we do not lose hope. And we do not lose hope because we realize that we were made for a better world than this and what awaits us is the loving embrace of a Father… or for people in Cebu, perhaps it is the loving embrace of a Child.
The Filipinos’ (especially the Cebuanos) devotion to the Sto. Niño embodies quite beautifully the marriage of faith and sense of humor that characterizes the Filipino. People, who believe and are constantly reminded that God can be so unassuming as to take on the form of a child, are people who can not take themselves too seriously. They are not afraid to be little, to look with childlike faith at a God whose reason for creating us was so we could spend eternity in His joyful presence.
It really is more fun being a Filipino. Viva! Pit Señor!