1) Christmas
The Philippines has one of the longest holiday seasons in the world, starting in September and ending around January 9. Christmas plays, parties, and decorations are in full swing throughout these months, and there are nine night Masses (known as Simbang Gabi) leading up to Christmas Day.
The Christmas season gradually starts from September to December and ends in the third or fourth week of January. It is celebrated for almost half a year (4 months and 3–4 weeks or 5 months). Generally, holiday decorations are available as early as the National Heroes' Day weekend in August.
Why Philippines has the longest Christmas?
“The most simple explanation for the Philippines' long Christmas season is our psychological framework to count down the days to big celebrations,” said Bro. Sorita. “100 days until Christmas start on September 16th but we, Filipinos, we always like to start celebrating earlier.”
2) Gender Equality
The Philippines has one of the smallest rates of gender disparity in the world. ... In the Global Gender Gap Index 2017, the Philippines ranked 10th out of 145 countries for gender equality. The Philippines ranks higher than any other Asia-Pacific country but New Zealand.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/12/18/1977944/gender-equality-philippines-out-top-10
WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 showed the country fell eight spots to rank 16th out of 153 economies, from last year’s eighth spot out of 149 countries.
This is the first time that the Philippines ranked lower than 10th in the Global Gender Gap Index.
The country’s lowest rank in the index prior to this year’s outcome was when it placed 10th in 2017. It achieved its highest rank in 2013 when it held fifth spot.
Overall, Iceland remained the world’s most gender-equal country, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden and Nicaragua.
Despite slipping in this year’s ranking, WEF said the Philippines’ performance was strong across three of four dimensions of the index – economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
Philippines should be rank in the top 10. The criteria shouldn't be base solely on economics, health, education and political involvement. They should include how women are treated on a daily basis by men. Also women in the Philippines have more interaction with their male friends compared to even the countries that are listed high on the ranking. Philippines is usually considered a matriarchal society.
3) Friendly country and people
https://asiasociety.org/philippines/philippines-deemed-one-worlds-friendliest-countries
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Forbes Magazine acknowledged the Top 15 Friendliest Countries based on the result of the HSBC’s “Expat Explorer Survey” which had been released last month. The Philippines was able to rank as the Top 8 among the world and 1st in Asia. Malaysia and Singapore, two Asian countries who were also able to join the list, ranked 10th and 14th respectively.
Meanwhile, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa were among the top 3 countries on the list.
