Christmas is the time for “balikbayan” boxes!
FOREX is having a blast these days 
And the airports/airline companies/airplanes are heavy with loads of boxes marked “BALIKBAYAN!”
Am I the only one, or are there thousands of us getting our boxes filled with goods for sending home, with unwrapped gifts marked with pentel pens for “Lola”, “Ineng” “Kuya” “Tatay” “kumpare ni Tatay”.. ?
It contains our pasalubongs. Treasured gifts for our families this Christmas. It’s filled with canned goods of Spam and corned beef, chocolates of all kinds, warehouse-sized shampoos, new shoes, dollar bills cramped into the new shoes, brand-name shirts… packed to the brim and packed even more until the scale reads “70″ pounds.
And if you happen to be going back to the US or anywhere, you carry a balikbayan box filled with Pinoy goodies too. Maybe different varieties of mama sita mixes, dried mangoes, polvorons, bottles of bagoong or your favorite sauces, new clothes bought at Divisoria or Megamall for pennies on the dollar…
Did you know that the Philippines is among the short list of countries that airlines allow 70 lbs per luggage? The rest of the world, including the USA, is only allowed 50 lbs! HA!
And why is that? They know Filipinos love their boxes.
Well, here’s an old article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer that blogger pinoyX of Wretch dug up. It’s a nostalgic look at what, and how much, a balikbayan box defines who we are and where we are going.
Tags: balikabayan, pasalubong, Filipino, gifts, meeting gifts, Christmas
4 Comments
Thoughfulness in Pinoys is how you explain the queries you get from non-pilipinos qued up on a long holiday travellers line at the airport when they ask why everybody on the PAL bee line has one or two “balikbayan” boxes to bring home to the Philippies. This is the busiest time for cargo freight companies as well doing the US/Phils. business. I like the freight company that gives out “libreng bigas” in exchange for your business.
you know i work for one of the major u.s. airlines based in chicago. i just want to inform you that we are not the only nationality travelling with bbbox. the mexicans and the latin american people also do the same thing. the only difference is that they are using boxes that they buy from U-Haul and the discarded boxes from Pamper and Huggies diapers. sad to say this, but the koreans hates the bbox. they call it PHILIPPINE SAMSONITE. did you know that if an airline accepts the bbox, they have to put it in a big plastic bin to hold these boxes so that the ropre or tapes around these boxes will not get entangled into the fast sorter and converyor belt. chicago o’hare alone for my airline has 25miles of conveyor belt system and if these boxes ropes and tapes get entangled, it will disrupt the movement of all the suitcases. before we start our work, we have to read briefings of what is happening w/in the system and the report of other hubs and airports. there was an incident at ohare, when a mexican is trying to hand carry inside the plane cabin a toilet seat. at least it is brand new, not 2nd hand. oh bay the way. i never announce to any of my wife’s friend that i am going back home to pinas. because they will ask me to bring something for them. i dont use a bbox to travel. there was a joke that there is this pinoy who ask a friend to bring an envelope for him to manila. so the friend said yes, he can do it, since it was only an envelope. but when the friend arrive to this person who is going back home, yes — it was an envelope — but the envelope was taped into a bbox. hehehehehe!!!
wow, glad to know they “wrap” our bboxes. Merry Christmas hehehe. I never thought those ropes can get entangled. My worry is if the ropes hold up to the weight of the boxes.
whatever bad rep our bboxes get us though, I personally think it’s worth the hassle. the look on your family’s face when they receive such, even if you bought the contents from a dollar store or some cheap place. it’s like opening Christmas presents ya’know.
[...] year around Christmas, Filipinos all over the world send balikbayan boxes to their relatives in the Philippines. Either they send the boxes via door-to-door cargo delivery [...]