A Strange Service from the Philippine Post Office - the "Return Box" (7 photos)

Do you know what is more popular in the Philippines than New Year's gifts? It is the great and mysterious Repatriate Box, which is called the Balikbayan Box.





Rich! It is a separate genre on YouTube - to brag about your balikbayans!

What is this mysterious Balikbayan Box

In essence, it is a large box that is sent from abroad, filled to the brim with all sorts of local gifts and goodies that are not common in the country. Local logistics and delivery services even pay special attention to it and are careful when they see that THAT VERY Balikbayan Box is on its way to someone. It all started in 1973, when the country's authorities simplified entry into their homeland for Filipino Americans who had long since left the country or were even born in another country. All so that they could visit the homeland of their ancestors.



It's actually interesting what they send to whom. The Colgate toothpaste set is surprising. but it would be interesting to try Spam ham

And people flocked in droves, they even got their own name - balikbayan, from the Tagalog words balík "to return" and bayan "city/settlement". And most importantly, visitors were allowed to bring up to two boxes of things without any customs duties. And they often brought back foreign gifts for the whole family and their friends, they had to bring whole boxes. In the Philippines, the tradition of bringing gifts from a trip is very popular, and these gifts were special - exotic.





Many delivery services even have boxes with a signature so that the delivery people know what they are bringing to the house!

In addition, the returnees tried to brag about how rich they had become abroad. In the 1980s, there was a huge influx of Filipino workers in the United States, so a special service was even opened for them in the postal services "send a balikbayan box". And in the end, everyone who wanted to visit their homeland visited, but the tradition of sending gift boxes remained. Now there are many more of them coming to the Philippines than there are Filipinos.



Here is a rich balikbayan from the US, but sending flip-flops to the Philippines? Seriously?

And ten years later, even the Philippine government issued a decree that balikbayan deliveries should have priority delivery. After all, these are people in a foreign land who send a message from afar to their homeland. They should be respected and remembered just as they remember us. In my opinion, this is incredibly sweet (and beneficial for relatives).

And what is usually put in a balikbayan?



And this is funny. The album, which was called Balikbayan Sound Box. It is a cultural marker of the country))

Something cute, and that is not sold in the Philippines. It can be unusual scented toilet paper, all sorts of dust brooms, toys with funny designs and sounds, designer clothes for girls, maybe even dry snacks that the person who left likes madly, and he wants his relatives to eat them too. The main thing is that the box contains something unusual or surprising (then you can enthusiastically tell your friends and neighbors about your box). Of course, it was. And even after the September 11 attacks, there were increased searches of these boxes, which resulted in huge piles of balikbayan boxes being collected at customs.



And this girl shows what she is sending to her relatives from Canada

The problem is that since the balikbayan box is considered a separate type of postal item according to special rules, they are placed in one container for shipment. And if there is something prohibited in one box, this affects the shipping and processing times of 400 parcels in the container. And now, according to statistics, 400,000 boxes of balikbayan arrive in the Philippines every month.



The standard size of an acceptable box is 52 by 52 by 52 centimeters

That's how a nice home tradition of bringing gifts was turned into a national tradition and even a separate transport service and law. Sounds great!