Arts & Culture
Spending the Holidays in the City? Here’s Where You Can Spend Your Christmas Eve!
Here’s where you can spend your Christmas Eve!

If you’re spending the holidays in the city this year, it’s good to plan your agenda beforehand so that all you have to do is relax and you don’t have to think about what to prepare because someone else will do that for you. If you’re planning on leaving your homes for the night, bring your loved ones because here are some of the things you could do on Christmas eve!
Spending Holidays at Pig & Palm
Loving the City Vibes? You can celebrate the holidays with flexible spaces and a sumptuous holiday menu right in the heart of the city at Pig & Palm. If you’re lucky, you might meet the Michelin-starred chef, Jason Atherton. For starters, you can choose from Prawn Cocktail with dill dressing, sun dried tomato and sourdough crisps or Chicken Liver Parfait. Christmas Eve dinner would not be complete without their main entrées which includes familiar favorites on the menu, but with the season’s twist such as a Roasted Turkey Breast and Pork Cutlet with caramelized apple, sage crumble and picked carrots. Finish your Holiday dinner with a Sticky Toffee with Christmas pudding ice cream.
Mövenpick Hotel & Resort
Feeling the Seaview on the holidays? On 24 December, indulge in a Swissmas Eve Buffet at The Sails restaurant, which showcases a wide display of this season’s culinary delights, classic confections and signature Swiss flavours. It’s a culinary treat with the best of the East and West, featuring a delectable variety of holiday specials and classic flavours from different regions. If you feel the call of the beach, you can visit the hotel for some splash and fun, and spend time at The Cabanas which is a perfect addition to your holiday.
Harolds Hotel
Christmas is definitely a special day! So on the eve and day of Christmas, Harolds Hotel offers a Lunch and Dinner buffet spread that will warm you up with traditional yet exciting flavors to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. You can also stay here overnight in their Deluxe Room with special live performance of Kurio Band and a breathtaking view in their roof top.
Crimson Resort and Spa
If you want to get away from the city for a night, you can come to Crimson Resort and Spa’s Saffron Café. They will spoil you with a dinner menu filled with a smorgasbord of holiday staples. Dine on the 24th and 25th of December to enjoy the music of the season through the rendition of Cebu’s top saxophonists with the resort’s Spanish restaurant that will serve a signature 5-course menu. A weeklong party at Azure Beach Club gives guests three set menu options including seafood and meat platter selection with two side dishes with two glasses of wine or signature Christmas drink perfect for two.
Shangri-La Mactan Resort & Spa
Relish in a luxurious vibe this holiday season with Shangri-La’s Merry Feasts, offering Festive Dinner Buffets & Christmas Eve Dinner at Tides with free-flowing red, white and sparkling wine. They also have entertainment featuring a Christmas Choir, Flash Mob Dance, Balloon Sculpture, Strolling Bands and Christmas Lucky Star. At Acqua, they have a four-course dinner and a glass of Prosecco Wine with a magician table by table. You can also spend the night getting all sweetened up by their Lobby Lounge’s Chocolate High Tea Buffet.
Last minute shopping? Read more about holiday gift guides: https://zee.ph/gift-guides-for-every-kind-of-cebuano/
Arts & Culture
Queer Coding in Cinema: The Best Shows to Binge for Pride Month 2025

compiled by Edge Javier
As Pride Month 2025 goes into full swing, the best way to celebrate LGBTQIA+ voices is with a binge-worthy lineup of shows that center queer stories, joy, love, resilience — and yes, of course, drama. From groundbreaking recent series to must-watch staples and fan favorites, here are the top shows to stream this June that reflect the vibrant spectrum of the queer-coded experience.
1. Heartstopper – Season 3 (Netflix)
Nick and Charlie are back, and the coming-of-age sweetness is stronger than ever. Season 3 explores deeper emotional territory while keeping the wholesome tone fans adore. Expect more queer joy, nuanced relationships, and tearjerker moments that feel like a warm hug.
2. Drag Me to Dinner (Hulu)
Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, this chaotic culinary competition pairs drag duos in a battle to throw the most fabulous themed dinner party. With outrageous challenges, surprise twists, and plenty of camp, queens serve up equal parts food, flair, and fierce shade. It’s RuPaul meets Top Chef—served with a side of sequins.
3. Queer Planet (Apple TV+)
Hosted by Janelle Monáe, this visually stunning docuseries dives into queerness in the animal kingdom and parallels in human identities. It’s smart, groundbreaking, and perfect for those who want to feel seen—and informed.
4. Fellow Travelers (Paramount+)
This period romance-drama set during the Lavender Scare continues to grip audiences with its tragic beauty and sharp historical insight. If you missed Season 1, now is the perfect time to catch up before the highly anticipated Season 2 lands later this year.
5. The Buccaneers – Season 2 (Apple TV+)
The unapologetically queer period drama returns with more scandal, sapphic yearning, and feminist rebellion among American heiresses navigating high society in 1870s London. Think Bridgerton, but with more edge and better sapphic representation.
6. Our Flag Means Death – The Finale Special (Max)
This fan-favorite pirate rom-com wraps up with a one-hour finale special airing this June. Whether you’re rewatching from the start or jumping into the last hurrah, this show remains a shining example of queer love told with heart and humor.
7. This Is Me Now… The Series (Prime Video)
Following Jennifer Lopez’s genre-blurring film-musical hybrid, the series version delves into themes of love, identity, and self-acceptance, and features cameos by queer icons and allies. It’s campy, messy, and made for Pride Month mood-boosting.
8. Sort Of – Final Season (Max)
This critically acclaimed dramedy about a gender-fluid millennial navigating love, grief, and identity in Toronto comes to a close with an emotionally rich final season. A thoughtful and often hilarious story that never loses its beating heart.
9. Red, White & Royal Blue – Limited Series (Prime Video)
After the hit film adaptation, the beloved queer romance returns in a serialized format, expanding on Alex and Henry’s story with new twists and deeper character arcs. It’s romantic escapism, elevated.
10. POSE: The Legacy (FX/Hulu)
This documentary miniseries honors the cultural legacy of POSE and the real-life ballroom legends who inspired it. Featuring interviews with cast, creators, and icons from the scene, it’s a must-watch tribute to queer history and resilience.
Whether you’re looking for laughter, tears, romance, or revolution, these Pride Month picks for 2025 offer it all—while honoring the complexity and beauty of LGBTQIA+ lives. So press play, turn up the volume, and let queer stories shine this June and beyond. Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈
Arts & Culture
Chaos and Clarity: Zen Aesthetic in Oj Hofer’s Art

by Jing Ramos |
Oj Hofer, our fashion contributing editor, is a Fine Arts graduate from the University of the Philippines. Though he began painting at the age of eight, his artistic journey took a transformative turn in 2013. While volunteering as a costume designer for Siddhartha: The Musical, he encountered Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s One-Stroke Calligraphy, sparking a deep devotion to Japanese sumi-e painting and kanji calligraphy. Over the years, he refined his craft, using his art to share the Dharma through exhibitions while supporting the Hsing Yun Educational Foundation. In 2022, his spiritual path deepened at Nan Tien University, where he embraced Zen and Humanistic Buddhism, shaping his artistic philosophy.

“Plum Blossoms in Moonlight.” Serigraphy on abaca.
In his recent works, Hofer merges traditional calligraphy with serigraphy, drawing inspiration from his friend Charles Lahti—an internationally recognized New York-based painter and printmaker. Lahti, known for his collaborations with post-war American artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, and LeRoy Neiman, introduced Hofer to silkscreen techniques. Through a workshop Lahti conducted in Cebu—arranged by their mutual friend Greg Urra—Hofer integrated silkscreen into his Zen artworks, particularly those on abaca.

“The Circle of Harmony” Serigraphy and Calligraphy on abaca.
Hofer’s cross-disciplinary approach challenges conventional Zen aesthetics. His layered paintings on abaca may seem far from tranquil at first glance, but closer contemplation reveals a meditative core. His serigraph of an Enso circle, for example, initially appears chaotic, filled with Tang Dynasty poetry and overlapping, repetitive forms. Yet, by focusing on a single calligraphic element, the viewer experiences a moment of clarity—a glimpse of awakening within the visual complexity.

“Monkey Mind” Serigraphy and Calligraphy on abaca.
Even more engaging is his diptych Monkey Mind. At odds with the traditional Zen emphasis on negative space, this piece is deliberately busy, reflecting the restless nature of the mind. A distracted viewer may struggle to find a focal point, but one attuned to emptiness and presence will perceive clarity amidst the seeming disarray.

Ink and intention—creating calligraphy in support of one of my advocacies.
By fusing Zen philosophy with the discipline of serigraphy, Hofer invites his audience to look beyond surface impressions and discover stillness within movement, balance within complexity. His art does not merely depict Zen—it embodies the paradoxes at its core, offering a path to mindfulness through the act of seeing and the experience of doing.
Arts & Culture
What is Sappia? The Rice Myth Goddess of Bohol Who Helped Feed the People During a Great Famine

by Emma Gomez
The story began when the people of Bohol started to experience hunger and famine. All the livestocks were inedible and the fields were dried out leaving only weeds planted on the ground. The people prayed to the goddess of mercy, Sappia, to ask for food.

Sappia, the rice myth goddess of Bohol
Sappia, from the heavens, heard the cries of the people. She saw the dense population of weeds and offered to help them. Sappia thought of nourishing the weeds to be edible and healthy for the people of Bohol. Straightaway, she sprinkled the weed with milk from her bossom. She emptied each breast until blood came out. Before she left, she whispered to the weeds that they may be nourished and be able to feed the people.
When harvest season came, the people of Bohol quickly gathered the nourished weeds. They observed that the ones sprinkled with milk were white, while the other were red. They called the new plant rice and they replanted these in honor of Sappia, and for the people to devour.
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