Each time I hear the name of the infamous Herod, the Great, two things come to mind. First, his obsession with everything grand and lavish. Second, the Andrew Loyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar’s (JCS) wackiest musical number in syncopated rhythm or the ragtime style. In JCS, the musical captured Herod’s…
Tag: UNESCO Tentative List World Heritage Site
The Holy Land Tour 2022 (Day 4): Nazareth, Israel
Why Nazareth is important to Christian / Catholic pilgrims today? Nazareth is described in the Gospel of Luke as a town in Galilee and the hometown of Mary, mother of Jesus. Although it was not explicitly mentioned in the same Gospel that Joseph was from Nazareth, it can be inferred that it was also his…
The Holy Land Tour 2022 (Day 4): Cana, Israel
Kaf’r Kanna, popular in the modern version of the Scriptures as Cana is a small Galilean town in the Northern District of Israel. Christians and Catholic pilgrims and devotees associate this modern village of Cana as the site where Jesus turned water into wine. In the Christian tradition, this is the first miracle that Jesus…
The Holy Land Tour 2022 (Day 4): Tabor Mountain
The fourth day is a continuation of the journeys of Jesus and the Apostles in North Israel. This time, there is a focus on the presence and role of Mary, Jesus’ mother in Jesus’s life and ministry. To reiterate, the sites that we visited on Day 4 were collectively part of Israel’s The Galilee Journeys…
The Holy Land Tour 2022 (Day 3) The Start of Palestine / Israel Leg, part 2 of 2
The next stop was Capernaum – it’s another personal favorite. It has almost the same features of the Felix Romuliana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Zamzigrad region in Serbia, which I visited in 2018. And to date, Romuliana is one of my favorite UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of course, Capernaum and Romuliana…
The Holy Land Tour 2022 (Day 3): The Start of Palestine / Israel Leg, part 1 of 2
We were told that we would spend at least two hours in the Allenby (Palestine) – King Hussein (Jordan) border before finally having our passports stamped by the immigration officers and enter Palestine, the gateway to Israel via Jordan. By 10 AM, we already crossed the King Hussein Bridge and we were already lined up…
Siquijor: A Hidden Paradizzze in the Philippines (The Final Part: The Lazi Church)
Currently, there are four churches in the Philippines, inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites: San Agustin Church inside Intramuros in Manila, Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte, Santa Maria in Ilocos Sur, and Miag-ao Church in Iloilo. Collectively, these churches are known The Baroque Churches in the Philippines. These churches possess cultural significance and influence on…
Heritage appreciation tour, or adventures and misadventures in Vietnam and Myanmar (Concluding Part)
On our last day in Yangon, we hired a private charter with the agenda of seeing the spectacle that is Yangon city. On a personal note, I wanted to see only one thing: the Shwedagon Pagoda! Remember the bright golden monument I was describing on an earlier post when we finally entered the city center…
Come on and Ghent/Gent me, Gent me; Baby I’m Yours! (The Castle of the Counts/Gravensteen)
Belgium is my favorite European country. I have several reasons and Ghent/Gent is one of them. Why Ghent/Gent? I thought the city was really charming in a sense that its surroundings reminded me so much of the fairy tales I read in my elementary years and I watched on television and the big screen via…
Siquijor: A Hidden Paradizzze in the Philippines (Part 1)
“We are going to Siquijor,” informing one of my closest friends. She asked me to bring asin (salt) to shoo evil spirits. She also pleaded me not to take anything from the locals. More so, not to drink anything that the locals offer. Then, she asked me to remember Manilyn Reynes and Ana Roces, two…
Tanghal Kultura 