Filipino American Heritage Month (FAHM) Night was hosted by Philipinx United Student Organization (PUSO) at the MHS Green on Oct. 17, to celebrate Filipino culture, according to PUSO Event Coordinator Lexine Erdosolo.
FAHM Night is like a night market combined with various performances, Erdsolo said. FAHM Night offered a variety of clothing vendors, traditional dances, and food vendors with American and Mexican fusion, she added.
“This celebrates Filipino Heritage Month by just showing people how we celebrate in the Philippines,” Erdosolo said. “It’s usually loud parties. There’s lots of singing, there’s lots of dancing, there’s lots of food. So it just shows people how we celebrate.”
Kensie Vongchanh, president of the Southeast Asian Student Association (SEASA) was a vendor at FAHM Night, she said. Her club sold taho, a Filipino tofu dessert, she said. Vongchanh felt like food is a good way to introduce yourself to a new culture, she added.
“The Philippines is a part of Southeast Asia, so I think it’s very important to recognize and celebrate its cultures and traditions,” Vongchanh said. “I also had lots of fun just learning about Filipino culture and their food. This is my first time trying taho, and it was really good.”
Vongchanh had a lot of fun at FAHM Night, she said.
“There were lots of vendors and lots of families that came to watch all the performances and support the businesses,” Vongchanh said. “I loved KDT’s dance, and watching all the performances. Also the bands – they were really nice to listen to.”
PUSO started planning FAHM Night in the summer, Leia Ramos, vice president of PUSO, said. PUSO had less than a month the previous year to plan FAHM Night, she added.
“We’ve done it once before last year, but this year, we had more time to prepare and make it better than last year,” Ramos said. “I was in charge of recruiting vendors with the other core officers and planning the start of the event.”
Vendors at FAHM Night didn’t have to pay a fee, so there wasn’t really a budget for FAHM Night, PUSO treasurer Kalani Landayan said. PUSO also had sponsors from Jollibee and New York Life at the event, she added.
“We just let people come be vendors for no fee, like usual night markets do, because we wanted this to be really community-based,” Landayan said. “We really only had to spend money on decorations, but we already had that laying around in our advisor’s room, so it wasn’t really that big of a deal.”
Ramos thought it was nice to see people at FAHM Night, whether they were Filipino or not, she said.
“It’s nice to see people show up for the community, to just come eat food and support local businesses and enjoy performances and see the cultural dances we do, and also bands from our students,” Ramos said.
