Monday, November 03, 2008 City all set for Giant Lantern Festival '08
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The City Government here has announced its preparedness for this year's Giant Lantern Festival.
This was bared during the press conference held at the Benigno Aquino Hall last Thursday by the Giant Lantern Executive Committee led by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez and attended by co-chairperson Corito Lim-Panlilio and barangay captains of the participating barangays, among others.
"We want to prove that making giant lanterns does not depend on the monetary capacity of the participant barangay but rather on the participation of the residents and their sense of belonging. After all, the making of a giant lantern is a local initiative," Rodriguez said.
This year's lantern festival will see the participation of nine barangays -- Sto. Niño, Sto. Rosario, San Jose, Dolores, Sta. Lucia, San Nicolas, San Juan, San Felipe, and Del Pilar.
"The festival will be held on December 20 and we expect to see our lantern makers innovate their crafts more," Panlilio said.
The festival traces its roots to the religious-cultural beginnings to the religious procession known as "lubenas." The lubenas, a corruption of the Spanish word novena, where held on each of the nine days before Christmas, coinciding with the dawn masses known as the Simbang Bengi (Simbang Gabi).
During the lubenas, 12 identical lanterns, which represented the 12 apostles and a thirteenth lantern shaped like a cross that represented Jesus Christ, were brought around the barrios accompanied by the patron saint of the barrio.
Later, the San Fernando lantern evolved into what it is today, but this came slowly through the years. It is said that the first lantern festival was held in honor of former president Manuel Quezon.
At that time, Quezon made Arayat his rest area and converted Mount Arayat into a tourist resort. As a show of gratitude to Quezon, the people of San
Fernando held a Christmas lantern contest to honor the first family.
Quezon himself donated the prize for his lantern contest, which was personally awarded to the winner by First Lady Aurora Aragon Quezon.
In the years that followed, more innovations were introduced to the giant lanterns. Colored plastics replaced traditional papel de hapon. Large steel barrels called rotors also substituted the hand-controlled switches to manipulate the lights. And lanterns have grown in size, approximately 20-feet today, and illuminated by about 3,500 to 5,000 light bulbs.
In 2003, lanterns created with used frames entailed a cost of P150,000 each while entries made entirely of new materials may eat up as much as P400,000 to half-a-million pesos.
The City Government could only provide financial assistance of P70,000 to each competing barangay, thus leaving the participants shouldering the remaining costs through solicitations from residents.
As part of the joint efforts to keep the tradition alive, the city will give a subsidy of P111,111.11 to the participating barangays to defray the cost of lantern production.
Each year the lanterns draw in vast crowds of people.
Rodriguez said that security measures have been prepped up for the occasion.
"There is also a serious invitation to bring the winning lanterns to Tagbilaran City in the South. There are also invitations from California and Brussels," Rodriguez added.
Previously, the San Fernando lanterns have visited Austria in 2007.
Rodriguez added that plans are in place for a lantern museum that would immortalize the Fernandino ingenuity and contribution in making
Filipino Christmas truly a season to celebrate despite the financial odds. (IOF)
