Happy Filipinos

How often do you see someone smiling in a funeral home? When you're stuck in a traffic nightmare under the hot sun, can you still have a good day? Living in a not-so-developed tropical country, how do Filipinos manage to keep a genuine smile on their faces?

This is one of the reasons why living in the Philippines is fun even though it's not as rich as other countries. Almost every filipino smile or laugh at least once a day. Normally, they laugh right after they woke up and saw a funny commercial on the television or heard a hilarious morning joke on the radio. This continues... Some co-workers/classmates/friends will take turns telling funny stories about things that happened to them or exchange even the corniest and oldest jokes.

No joke is too corny for a filipino. No matter how old that joke is, there would always be someone in a group of five friends who would start laughing so hard and the rest would follow. Filipinos are very appreciative, when they know that you are trying to make them laugh, they will always try to find something funny about what you say or do and then laugh to make you feel that you did a great job making someone happy.

Lunch time. Even before this time comes, they are already planning where to eat and what they are going to eat. Lunch time is always exciting because filipinos usually have lunch together with some other people. It is rare to see someone having lunch alone. Someone would remember his/her embarrassing moment while eating and will tell it to his/her companions. They talk while they eat, so what? It's fun and filipinos live to enjoy every moment of their lives.

The day ends. At night, filipinos love to watch some telenovelas and late night gag shows. Some would go to clubs and party all night. So there's still fun and laughter even before they sleep.

Smiling in a funeral home? Some would think it's weird but if we will pay attention, we will notice this in almost every funeral home in the Philippines. Filipinos are known for loving their family next to God, they feel so much pain when a family member dies, who doesn't? What they think is.. no matter how much we love a person, they can't be with us forever and we just have to accept the fact that they are gone and just hope that they are happy wherever they are now. Filipinos cry when someone they love dies but they believe that they should be happy so their loved one's soul would be happy too.