Nipa Hut

Philippines have many national symbols, one of this is the nipa hut. The Nipa hut (bahay-kubo) is considered as the national house of the Philippines. It is, as the name implies, a hut, raised a few feet above the ground and constructed out of bamboo tied together, with a thatched roof using dried grass. It provides basic shelter from the most available and inexpensive of materials, and works well as protection against the average wind or rainfall, aside from providing good ventilation. However, the downside to these houses is that they are not stable enough to withstand the gale-force winds during the typhoons that ravage the country every year. These huts are iconic symbols of what a house is in the country, the countryside, and as a part of the most recognized symbol of the concept of bayanihan(spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective). The usage of the nipa hut as a device to refer to bayanihan stems from the fact that moving the hut on two large poles requires a lot of people, including the neighbors, thus demonstrating the spirit of bayanihan.