What’s better than cuddling up with a good book at the end of the day? Celebrating the joy of reading at the end of the month with your workmates! Our April huddle was a magical celebration of everything by the books with the theme Bookapalooza. From the timeless classics to the trendy contemporaries, we spent Bookapalooza bonding over our favourite characters and tales.
The month of April puts together two great holidays: National Literature Month in the Philippines, and Easter. Which is why we decided to put two-and-two together with an Easter Egg Hunt followed by our April huddle: Bookapalooza! Literature plays a huge part in the Philippines so much so that the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) dedicates the whole month of April to celebrate it.
The April huddle theme? National Literature Month!
Literature, or stories in general, can bridge even the widest of cultural or geographic gaps. With the diversity of regional languages in the Philippines, cultural points like books forge a secret connection, a sort of imagined community between people who would never even meet. Two people living thousands of miles away in the Philippines, never speaking the same language, can still hold a connection just by talking about Noli Me Tangere or Florante at Laura. Two novels that Filipinos read while in high school. This is why we celebrate National Literature Month every April. April is dedicated to the stories – both foreign and local – that forge friendships and have been the origins of ideas.
HGS Gets Lit-erary for the April Huddle
Our HGS teams did not disappoint in bringing the spirit of literature to the month’s huddles. We asked our teams about their favourite books, and we were surprised to hear a diverse range of genres. Someone even said that their favourite series is the Percy Jackson novels by Rick Riordan. They were ecstatic when we had our Olympus-themed Year-End Party last December. Over at Twenty-Five Seven, our huddle hosts kicked off the party by donning a traditional Barong Tagalog and laurel leaf crown, the classic outfit of a Filipino laureate.
April also welcomed the Bookapalooza Book Donation Drive here at HGS! We sent out a call for children’s book donations to our teams and they definitely did not disappoint. Sorting through the donations, we saw childhood classics like Alice in Wonderland and even contemporary fiction from authors like Lemony Snicket. Here’s hoping that these books spark wonder and imagination in a new generation of readers.
Easter Egg Hunt
Warning: This section will contain a lot of egg-based puns.
Before the huddles this month, we put our HGS teams on a merry hunt for Easter Eggs we had hidden around the office. Each egg was filled with treats and a corresponding prize of either some classic Filipino sweets, gift vouchers or an egg-ztra special spot in our huddle games.
Our HGS teams searched high and low for those Easter Eggs, and we did our best to hide them, too. Some were deliberately hidden in hard-to-find places, others were hidden strategically in plain sight. No yolk, we even hid a grey egg against a grey wall, and it took a lot of hints to even know that something was there. Nonetheless, we congratulate everyone who found the Easter Eggs in record time! Egg-zemplary work!
The Game is Afoot!
Our huddles were filled with different themed games for our teams to participate in. First up, our teams at 1Nito Cebu had a spirited game of Judge a Book by Its Charade where they had to act out literary scenes from different books. It was amazing seeing the bibliophiles’ eyes light up when they recognized their favourite classics.
Meanwhile, the teams at Twenty-Five Seven did their best to memorise and pass on a line from literary classics to another teammate with the game Pass the Message.
The name of the game was whispering a quote to your teammate in front of you, and then passing it on the one in front of them. The team who still had the complete quote by the last member wins. It was as quiet as it could be, but you could definitely hear the tension in the room!
On the same page, our teams at Twenty-Four Seven played a game of Lips Don’t Lie. The game needed two players: one wearing headphones that blasts music, and the other trying to tell them something really quietly. With every player, the audience could not help but jump in frustration with every wrong guess.
What’s Coming Up in the Next Chapter?
Well, we’ve made it to the last page of our story…at least for the April huddle. We hope that everyone had a spirited time looking back at our Easter Egg Hunt and remembering the stories that made us. We also wish that the huddle truly brought everyone back to the joy of reading! As our VP of Operations, Paul Butalid, said in his opening remarks, “I can’t stress enough how important [reading] is to your own personal growth. It is for your learning, and for your peace of mind. End your day reading a good book or start your day reading a good book!”
Hard to believe it’s already the middle of the-year and there is still so much to look forward to. Not to give too much of a peek into the horizons at HGS, but we heard of a summer fiesta-themed huddle coming around. Do I hear traditional Filipino games coming up? Only one way to find out. See you there, bookworms!
Citations:
Bracamonte, Earl D. C. “April is National Literary Month.” PhilStar, 1 Apr. 2022.
HGS Offshore Staffing Solutions. “Olympus: HGS Year-End Party 2022.” HGS Offshore Staffing Solutions, 23 Dec. 2022.
