Donna Bailey, Phlebotomy Team Leader, shares her story in celebration of East and South East Asian Heritage Month.
I live in England. I was born and bred in the Philippines, my ethnicity is Filipino-Hispanic and my nationality is British/ Filipino. I am proud of my heritage, I am proud to have lived and worked to my adopted country, Great Britain. I am that part who works behind the scenes of Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, and I am that part of the backbone in National Health Service (NHS).
We have a few traditional Filipino days like Filipino Independence Day, known as “Araw ng Kalayaan” (Day of Freedom), marks the end of over 300 years of Spanish colonization. Like any other Catholics, here in the UK we celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve. For us it is a family time spent at home. Formal celebrations start on 16th December when catholics go to the first of nine pre-dawn masses, many households play Yuletide songs (and decorate the tree) as early as September.
Before Christmas, we have Noche Buena, Spanish for “the Good Night”, is celebrated every December 24th in Spain, Latin Countries, and the Philippines. It's the traditional Christmas Eve feast where family members gather together to rejoice around the Nativity scene that is present in nearly every home.
To welcome in the new year, Filipinos have a midnight (Media Noche) feast with specific foods and meals. In particular, families serve a platter of twelve round fruits at dinner time. Twelve fruits are used to represent the twelve months in a year. The circular shape of fruits symbolizes coins and money.
If there is one word that perfectly describes us Filipinos it's that we are hospitable. We are a friendly nation, often showing no hesitation when it comes to helping strangers and even going out of our way to make sure we can make every person we meet feel at ease and at home.
Find out more about Donna in the Many Cultures, One ROH exhibition below or visit the display outside Outpatients!
Royal Orthopaedic Hospital - Many Cultures One ROH Exhibition
