Mabuhay
Tagalog/Filipino greeting
Mabuhay (lit. 'to live') is a Filipino greeting, usually expressed as Mabuhay!, which means "long live!". The term is also occasionally used for toasts during celebrations to mean "cheers". It is similar to the Hawaiʻian expression "aloha". It is used in the local hospitality industry to welcome guests, a practice rooted in a 1993 campaign launched by restaurateur Rod Ongpauco to more uniquely welcome foreign visitors to the Philippines.
Mabuhay is also the name of the inflight magazine published by flag-carrier, Philippine Airlines, as well as its frequent-flyer program.
Historical
The word itself has been recorded as a salutation at least early as 1930, when General Douglas MacArthur was sent off amid shouts of “Mabuhay!” In 1941, the Rotarian noted local chapters using it in conveying well wishes to the service organisation. In February 1973, a big cloth sign saying “Mabuhay, Maj. Bob Peel” welcomed released North Vietnam prisoner-of-war, U.S. airman Robert D. Peel, as he stopped by the country as part of Operation Homecoming.
Current usage
The word is otherwise used in its more traditional form as a cheer, especially during celebrations in a variety of contexts:
“Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Repúblika!”(“Long live the Philippines!
The public source identifies “Mabuhay” as tagalog/Filipino greeting. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mabuhay, Tagalog and Filipino.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mabuhay”, the useful work is to connect “tagalog/Filipino greeting” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4273740. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1993, 1930, 1941 and 1973.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mabuhay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.