Love Through Time
| Nicola Ampere De Guzman
Layout by Elijah Jardinez
Love is one of the most powerful things in the world. The Bible even says that among faith and hope, the greatest is love. We love people—our families, friends, and those who make life meaningful for us.
We love different things—like art, fashion, and other hobbies. But love isn’t just about affection for people, and the things we get to like very deeply. Sometimes love means to care, to protect, and to remember.
However, have you ever wondered if there is something you failed to love? A culture that is slowly fading through time? But how can we learn to love if we no longer practice it? Simply knowing is different from living it.
Is Your Playlist Saying What Guitars Used To?
Modernization has changed the way people express love. It also affected how people view and preserve old traditions and practices.
Teenagers nowadays label their relationship status with terms like “talking stage,” where couples get to know each other through messages. In one of Lana Blakely’s vlogs, she talks about the struggle of finding love in the modern world—everything is fast-paced, losing genuine connection, and the time to truly know each other.
That brings us back to the old days, when expressing love through songs meant standing outside with a guitar and not sharing Instagram Notes or a personal playlist, which is like the modern version of paghaharana; it is still far from what it truly is.
Harana was used by our great-great-grandparents, and maybe even our parents. It seems simple, but it takes a lot of courage to do. As described by the Taas-Noo Editorial Team, it even follows distinct stages: pananawagan (calling the person you like), pagtatapat (confessing), pagtanggi (rejection), and pamamaalam (farewell).
Florante Aguilar, a classical guitarist and composer, travelled around the Philippines to find the last living harana masters. In his 2012 documentary titled Harana: The Search for the Lost Art of Serenade, he met three men he called the Harana Kings: Felipe Alonzo, Celestino Aniel, and Romeo Bergunio—once active participants of harana during their youth, now among its last practitioners.
Aguilar eventually realized that harana is more than just a musical performance or a way of Filipino courting—it is art, a tradition that we should not forget, for beauty lies within it.
Paghaharana has been part of Filipino culture since Spanish colonization in 1565. As time passed, harana became a powerful display of dedication, respect, sincerity, and the man’s willingness—qualities that playlists or Instagram notes cannot replicate.
The Viral Bayanihan
Many of us still believe that bayanihan is a tradition actively practiced by Filipinos today. While this is true, how it’s carried out has evolved. In an article by Noypi.com.ph, bayanihan is described as a core element of Filipino culture.
The iconic scene of Filipinos helping each other move a house, carrying them from one place to another, was famously depicted by Carlos “Botong” Francisco, a respected Filipino painter. It became the most commonly used example of bayanihan, to the point that if you search for it online, those images appear the most. This has led some to assume that the tradition no longer applies today.
But that’s not the case. As Hilda Aldana, a writer for Seasia, explained, bayanihan simply means helping one another without expecting anything in return.
In modern times, however, bayanihan seems to have become just a content for vloggers and influencers. They use their acts of helping others as something to post online, sometimes even creating fake and scripted scenarios. While what they are doing might be with good intentions, this commercialized form of bayanihan removes the selflessness that lies at the heart of the tradition.
As Billy De La Cruz, a writer for Balikbayan Magazine, reminds us, bayanihan should serve as a symbol that our strength lies in our ability to come together and lift each other up. Modern times may have changed the way we help each other, but what matters the most is that the act remains rooted in compassion, whether it was done quietly or shared online.
Cultural Love, Reconnected
These traditions may have long been woven into the fabric of our culture, passed down through countless generations, with the hope that we will continue to honor them. Though it may seem outdated, their rarity is what makes them beautiful. They serve as a powerful reminder of the depth, patience, and respect that once defined love.
These traditions should be practiced once more, not just because they are familiar, but because their culture is deeply rooted in love. As UNESCO states, for intangible cultural heritage to remain alive, it must stay relevant to the community, be continuously recreated, and be passed down through generations.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) even enforced the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, which mandates the preservation and conservation of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. This makes it clear that the preservation of cultural practices, like harana, is not just a matter of cultural pride but a legal responsibility.
Love for culture is like a flower—it requires care and attention. If you just let it grow on its own, it may wither, even if you love it. The very traditions that helped shape Filipinos into who we are today are part of our identity—so cherish it.