People, Culture and Arts
Maasinhons speak either the Cebuano language or its dialect of Bohol, Boholano. Their cultural and linguistic affinities tend to differ them from those who reside in Cebu, Bohol, and the western coast of the province of Leyte. Most of the people are farmers and fishermen who are noted for their hard work and frugality.
Approximately 90% of the people are adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, but traditional folk beliefs and superstition still influence some of them. Some farmers still hold on to pre-Hispanic and conservative beliefs in making offerings and sacrifices before planting season starts. At times, chicken or pigs are ritually sacrificed to ensure that the spirits or the elementals of the land will allow a good harvest.
Maasin City is Southern Leyte's commercial and cultural showcase. An important edifice that brings pride to the Southern Leyteños is the notable Spanish-era church - a relic of time when churches were the only true refuge of the people, both spiritually and physically. The church is adorned or embellished with an ornate altar and beautiful images of saints, and became a testament to the continuing religiosity of the people of Southern Leyte.
Read more about this topic: Maasin
Famous quotes containing the words culture and/or arts:
“The local is a shabby thing. There’s nothing worse than bringing us back down to our own little corner, our own territory, the radiant promiscuity of the face to face. A culture which has taken the risk of the universal, must perish by the universal.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.”
—William Morris (1834–1896)