Happy Filipino American Friendship Day!!

While back in the States, we're eating barbecue and setting fireworks to celebrate our own independence, July 4th also marks another holiday: Filipino American Friendship Day! The day commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Manila, which granted the Philippines independence from the US in 1946, after being a US territory since 1898.

Filipinos celebrate their Independence Day, however, on June 12, marking the day Emilio Aguinaldo declared the Philippines as independent from Spain. July 4th is also known in the Philippines as Republic Day. While it stopped being observed as a national holiday in the mid-80s, it's still a great day to wish your Filipino friends a happy friendship day!

Good times with American and Filipino friends and coworkers at my despedida last September.