I saw this post on yahoo! she (under FOOD, what?) about throwing a party on a budget.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of things in there that wasn't applicable to Pinoy parties.
☄ FOLLOW THE JUMP TO SEE MY VERSION OF A PARTY IN A BUDGET ☄
Parties are a part of human kind's daily grind. Back then, they called it FEASTS.
These feasts are super big-deals. You don't just throw a feast on a whim.
FEASTS are important social events that are used to mark a special occasion (e.g. marriage, death), a quasi-religious event (e.g. harvest), and/or a social reaffirmation of status.
There are even cases where FEASTS were used to prevent war, control pig population (see Malinowski), and distribution of wealth.
The wealthier members of the village would slaughter many of their animals to be able to feed the entire village, making sure that every person would take home extra meat after the party.
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This makes me think of the Hunger Games series where the protagonist (I think it was Katniss) was aghast that some of the guests were taking laxatives to be able to vomit and eat some more.
This vomiting-to-consume-more is an ancient tradition where party-goers needed to be able to consume more as 1) to reaffirm status and 2) respect.
For the former, if the chieftain has thrown the feast, the heads of other clans (the elites) would need to put up a show of strength by letting others see that they are able to consume so much and that the chieftains offerings are ok and aren't really that plentiful because, look, they're still eating. As for the latter, if you don't eat what is served to you, you are practically saying something bad about your host.
So, Katniss and author, there's nothing bad about it. To each his own.
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As for Filipinos, parties are all about food. We have an entire culture revolving around food.
When I say Filipinos, I mean the regular Juan. I do not mean the upper classes. Yes, classes exist. I will not white wash my narrative.
Anyhow, apart from food, booze is an important component in a party. Oh, you don't drink alcohol? It doesn't matter. Feasts always serve iced tea or juice (be careful about the juice, see below).
Well, on to my PARTY ON A BUDGET!
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FOOD
(BUDGET: 1000php)
SPAGHETTI/PANCIT + BREAD
These are the staples. If you have a bit left over for meat, pick pork bbq. They go so well together.
You can get both the spaghetti and pancit delivered from various food houses such as AMBER'S. You can always cook your own.
Now, it wouldn't matter if the sauce of your spag is made from ketchup. Add a LOT of cheese and you're fine.
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NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
(BUDGET: 300php)
Coke, Sprite, Royal, Mountain Dew
Any supermarket or grocery would have the pack of 3 bottles of these beverages.
Each pack is about 100php. That gives you 9 bottles. You would even have change left-over!!!
You can use the change to grab a few packets of iced tea or juice.
Make sure to get the party bottles which is 2L (instead of the usual 1.5L).
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BOOZE
(BUDGET: 500php)
GIN (plenty)
You have 50 people coming over and you know that half of these folks are heavy drinkers.
The above is good for the night. Seriously.
Make juice (I suggest the pink one, pomelo?) and mix the gin in.
Repeat when consumed.
Please remember that when one goes to a party, one doesn't leave until one is truly drunk. That is the proper way of going to a party
Recipe, you ask? 1/4 gin, then the rest is juice. Add ice. Increase amount of gin for faster road to drunken-ess.
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| Me in a party that has videoke. Sorry, it's blurry. Someone might have had too much to drink. |
ENTERTAINMENT
(BUDGET: 0php)
LET PEOPLE ENTERTAIN THEMSELVES
There is no better entertainment than each other. Heck, you don't even have to have music on (so that people can hear each other).
All you need is to put a bunch of (fed) people together and magic happens.
Mind that this is for a real party instead of videoke-type parties.
Otherwise, you can rent a videoke machine for 500php overnight rate.
However, it would be a much more rewarding night if you let people fend for themselves.
You would not believe that crazy things drunk people do.
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| Not my eskinita. I didn't have a new pic. This eskinita is much prettier that ours! |
VENUE
(BUDGET: 0php)
ANY SPACE. REALLY.
There was one month where a few consecutive weekends had a party in different parts of our alley.
That's right. The party was in that tiny alley. What?
Oh yeah. That is the ingenuity of the Filipinos. If your party has too much space to move around, you're doing something wrong.
They weren't simple or small parties. These were full-on videoke parties. They had a big table out, extra lights and spaghetti galore. Awesome!
If my resourceful neighbors could do it, then any one could do it!
(The Minotaur was nowhere to be seen.)
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INVITATION
(BUDGET: 15php to 30php)
TEXT + FACEBOOK
You do not need to have it in writing. This would give people the wrong impression that they need to show-up in their finest clothes and bring a gift.
Besides, why spend money on invites when you can do it via facebook.com?
You don't even need to make an "event". You just need to put it up on your wall and tag everyone.
If there are folks not on facebook.com, then load up on your favorite service provider, get one of those all-text prepaid promos and text away.
Generally, one text per household will do. Let your guests spread the word.
Better yet, let some of your guests come early so that they can help you cook LOL.
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Remember that parties are not about how awesome everything looks (after a few drinks, everything looks awesome anyways).
What's important is that you got all your friends and love-ones with you as you celebrate your life.
Parties = People
You can have the most extravagant party with souvenirs. But the best bit would be talking about the silly things that dude did, and how a friend working at a call center went to your party instead of sleeping, or how Tita Baby and Mama bonded over spaghetti ketchup.
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Plus... It's more FUN in the PHILIPPINES!
☄
x, Pau
party people: http://weheartit.com/entry/48926228/via/kikoutoi
pancit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pancit_Malabon.jpg
drinks: http://article.wn.com/view/2012/07/26/How_do_the_latest_generation_of_diet_sodas_stack_up/
booze: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2733/4394304189_9ef9955f48.jpg
not my eskinita: http://www.biz-e-web.com/ugat10/
.gif "Darccy Bloggers")
i miss Filipino parties.
ReplyDeletewe still do here but it's not the same as there :)
Chiara♥
xmisschiarax.blogspot.com
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Nothing beats a Pinoy party with ketchup-spaghetti lol! :)
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