We Filipinos are said to be respectful. We value our friends and families and often times, we show our respect to those people by doing what we traditionally do, the pagmamano. In the Philippines, showing respect for one's elders is a tradition that has been preserved for generations. The 'honouring-gesture' called pagmamano involves a younger person asking for an elder's hand and gently touching their own forehead with it while bowing.

             Pagmamano ' is very important to show reverence in every Filipino and we also use ' po ' and ' opo ' to respond to the elders. I am very proud of that practice, because every time we see the children giving respect to their parents, it makes us feel proud. As a Filipino we should give our ancestors importance to our culture. This type of showing respect has been done a long time ago and I will not be surprised if children do this anytime they meet elderly people. Even I myself still practice pagmamano because basically, there are no age requirements in doing so. Pagmamano is aways done when you arrived or leaving the place, and even to those elders you just met. So when you are in Philippines there are still some kids who will come and say mano po by picking up his/her hand, bowing his/her head and gently pressing the back of your hand gently to his/her forehead and elders will respond by telling "God Bless you" or "May the Lord have mercy on you". See, this kind of tradition puts us at the top in terms of showing respect and compassion. Often times, when foreigners here the word "pagmamano", the first thing that comes up to their mind is the country Philippines, and by that only, we shoul be proud.


            In some places in the Philippines, the Mano tradition or Mano po is a dying tradition, in my place it is still done by some of the children in the neighborhood showing respect for the elderly, but some of them not even respect their parents and siblings. Ever since I was still a child, I have always done pagmamano because I was taught correctly and that we should always show respect to the elderly. I hope, to the coming generation that this Philippine culture will not wither out of existence because this kind of respect puts a label in every Filipino around the world