Live in the Philippines

Live in the Philippines helps expats with visas, moving and other services regarding the Philippines.

It’s February 14 today

Holidays / by

Yes, it is.  Today (Philippine time) is February 14 – Valentine’s Day, or St. Valentine’s Day as some call it.  Valentine’s Day is a huge event in the Philippines.  I can certainly say that Valentine’s is a much larger event here than it is back in the USA where I come from.  Why is that?  Are Filipinos hopeless romantics?  Well, I don’t know about hopeless, but they are romantics, no doubt.

Back in the USA, Valentines day is more of a kid’s event.  Not exclusively, but that is a big part of it.  In the stores they sell boxes of Valentine’s cards and little candies for kids.  At many schools, the kids exchange cards and candy on Valentine’s Day.  Yes, couples might go out for dinner, to a movie, or just generally have time together.

Here in the Philippines, though, Valentine’s day is an EVENT!  I know one couple who are in a “distance relationship” – the man lives and works in Davao, the woman lives and works in Manila.  She is flying down to Davao for Valentine’s Day to spend it with her man, though.

For the most part, on Valentine’s Day, you can’t just go out to dinner here.  You must reserve, and often even pay for the meal in advance.  Valentine’s Day is the only day of the year that I know of where you really need a dinner reservation here in the Philippines.  And, I am not just talking about the high end restaurants.  This extends to even lower end eateries too!  The restaurants often have a big buffet dinner on Valentine’s Day.  There are parties to attend, big events of all sorts!  I remember last year (or was it the year before?) they had a nationwide event where everybody was supposed to kiss at a certain exact time.  They estimated how many people participated, and they submitted it to the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people kissing simultaneously.  I never heard if Guinness accepted it or not.

Valentine’s Day is good for Feyma and I too.  With our online business, WowPhilippines, it is our busiest season of the year, much bigger than Christmas is for us.  So, we make good money during Valentine’s Day, which is nice.  It is certainly a lot of hard work, though.

Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!

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Comments

  1. Hi Bob,
    Happy Valentine's Day to you and Feyma. You have mentioned about your business in Wow Mindanao, i browse some pages one time and came across a cellphone Nokia 6030. Is that already unlocked? I owned one in the US from T-Mobile and plan to bring there on my next visit, do you think it will work. this phone is a dual band, i think.

    Thank you.

  2. Well Venice and I are celebrating today, especially since I won't be here for our 1 year wedding anniversary. I will be cooking dinner tonight.

  3. Hi Peacy – Just to clarify, my business is not Wow Mindanao, it is WowPhilippines. I think that if you have a 6030, it would probably work here, but you may need to have it unlocked.

    Hi BrSpiritus – I hope that you two have a great evening!

  5. Hi Bob – Its Diony, I'm doing comments on behalf of Ida. Just arrived in Sydney 4 days ago from my mom's hospital bed in Toril. Ida is still in El RIo and be leaving there tomorrow. A flying kiss to her on this valentine's day. And Happy Valentine's day to everyone.

  6. Hi Doiny – Hey, I'd offer to go give Ida a big kiss for you, as your Valentine's gift, but somehow I don't think you'd want that! 😆 Just teasing… Happy Valentine's to you!

  7. Hi Bob – Red decorations are already up; big doings in the making! How very right you are about Valentine's Day & Filipinos.

    BTW, while in Manila in mid-January, saw a "WowPhilippines.com" bumper sticker on a taxi. Any "relation"? 😆

  8. Hi Paul – The Philippine Government has a tourism site with the same URL as mine, except that theirs has a ".ph" on the end of it. Most people who see their bumper stickers, ads on TV, etc. usually end up going to my site. Oh, how I appreciate the Philippine Government spending all that money to advertise for me! 😉

  9. Hi Peachy – Try taking your cell phone to Greenhills, San Juan. They can unlock there and if the sim card is the same as in Phil, it certainly works.

  11. Hi Bob! I have always been working on Valentines Day. Tonight I have to go observe dinner service in a restaurant. Milper is out of town for a conference so I have to come back home not too late for my little girls. Valentines is just another busy day for me and another profit center for my clients!

  12. Hi Klaus – Happy Valentine's Day to all of the Doring household!

    Hi Cathy – Yep, this is a very busy day in our house! Everybody is working so hard!

  14. Hi Tom – When I was a kid, I had a job picking strawberries. This is when I was about 11 or 12 years old. The rules there were that you could eat all the berries you wanted, in addition to making money for every flat of berries that you turned in. For the first couple days, everybody would eat berries like they were going out of style. After about 2 days, though, if you even thought of eating another strawberry you would feel like getting sick! Valentine's is sort of like that for Feyma and I. Even if we wanted to go out for dinner tonight, we'd be too tired from the long hours of work we put in for the day! We show each other our love every day, and don't necessarily need to do a dinner tonight to know that! 😆

  17. Venice and I decided to go out to paradise Island today, it was pretty much deserted out there. Ate dinner at the beachfront resto… they make the best sisig I have tried so far.

  19. While in USA the valentine day is known as kids day (as Bob says) in the Philippines an important family and sweethart day, in Australia it is known as "condom day" happy Valentines to everybody.