Go Suck a Lemon: Strategies for Improving Your Emotional Intelligence

by Michael Cornwall

I discovered what I had witnessed was a Filipino greeting called Mano Po, mano meaning hand; po is placed at the end of a sentence when addressing elders. I learned that Filipino children and young people greet or say goodbye to their elders by taking the right hand of the elder with their own right hand and touching the back the elder’s hand lightly on their forehead. Mano Po is a Filipino custom for showing respect to elders and receiving their blessing. This gesture of deference is not, as I had supposed, reserved for the wealthy, the famous or the politically connected. Mano Po is performed as a sign of respect with all elders by Filipino youth, regardless of their status or social class. In Filipino culture, aging people evoke sincere and reverential emotions and behaviours from younger, less experienced people.