In this article, we will tell you about the island state in the Pacific Ocean. These are the top ten most interesting facts about the Philippines. This country consists of more than 7,100 islands. It is located north of Indonesia. The population of the country is almost 103 million people. The capital is Manila. The official languages are English and Filipino. So, let's get started:
1. The flag of the Philippines has two stripes of blue and red, with the blue one on top. When a war breaks out, the stripes on the flag switch places, and so the flag becomes red and blue.
2. In the Philippines, there are Christian religious fanatics who celebrate Good Friday every year. They voluntarily beat themselves on the back with whips until they bleed, thus sharing the suffering of Jesus Christ when He was executed on Golgotha. The most reckless fanatics even imitate Christ by voluntarily going to the cross. They are nailed to the cross with real nails and left to hang there for some time. Such events are condemned by the Catholic Church, however, it cannot stop them, and the inhabitants of the Philippines subject themselves to suffering year after year in the name of their faith. They believe that such a ritual will help their immortal souls find a place in heaven.
3. Spider fighting is popular among Filipino youth. People catch special spiders and then arrange battles between them, betting on them. There are even regional tournaments and the owner of the strongest fighting spider can win a lot of money.
4. In the Philippines, there is a banana ketchup. It was created during the Second World War, when there was a severe shortage of tomatoes in the country. Therefore, they began to make ketchup from bananas. This ketchup went well, and therefore, after the end of the Second World War, the production of this ketchup continued, and it is still on the Philippine market.
5. In 1993, Pepsi launched an advertising campaign in the Philippines, promising to pay 40,000$ to anyone who found the number 349 under a Pepsi-Cola cap. But there was a technical error, instead of 4 such caps, 800 thousand were released. This led to street riots and an attempt on the Philippine Pepsi-Cola office, since the company did not pay each owner of such a cap their winnings. Also, the company's management received threats from dissatisfied lottery participants for several years after this.
6. There is a law in the Philippines that allows a husband to kill his wife and her lover if he catches them both having sex. This law also allows a father to kill his daughter if she is under 18 and was caught having sex with her boyfriend before marriage.
7. The Philippines has a law that guarantees every working resident of the country a 13th salary. Every December, the employer must pay another full salary to all employees.
8. Residents of the poorest areas of the Philippines prepare a dish called "Pak-pak". The ingredients for it are all the things that these people find in the garbage dumps near restaurants. All this waste is mixed and then fried in boiling oil, which allows these people not to get poisoned if any of these products turn out to be rotten or moldy.
9. Filipino boxer Meeny Pacquiao is considered a national hero in his home country. An interesting fact is that when the boxer participates in a match, the crime rate on the streets of Philippine cities drops several times. This has been recorded and confirmed by the Philippine police. This happens because all the criminal elements in the Philippines are at home or in a bar, where they watch the fight instead of committing crimes.
10. In 1965, an incident occurred in the Philippine Sea. An American plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier rolled into the sea. Everything would have been fine, but there was a 1-kiloton nuclear bomb on board the plane. The plane and the bomb remained on the seabed.
