OUR City answers to the monikers “Christmas Capital of the Philippines” or Lantern Capital of the Philippines primarily because of the enduring lantern tradition highlighted by the annual Ligligan Parul or Giant Lantern Festival competition. As a testament to this, Paskuhan Village, shaped like a lantern, was inaugurated in 1990 as the world’s third Christmas village though it does not function as such these days.
Compared to the Japanese or Chinese lantern making traditions which date back to thousands of years ago, ours in San Fernando is relatively young at about several hundred years old. Compared to Japanese lanterns, the San Fernando lantern is more colorful and dynamic with the fusion of blinking lights with lively Christmas music. These could be attributed primarily to the difference in cultures since Christmas is a bigger event for us here than in Japan.
These days I have been pre-occupied by studying the history of lantern making in San Fernando as part of our efforts to chronicle how the tradition possibly started and evolved through the years. Oral accounts, primarily based on the family history of the Davids and Quiwas of Barangay Santa Lucia, say that this year is the centennial of lantern making as pioneered by their forefather Francisco Estanislao in 1908. The details on how and why this happened remain unknown, but genealogical reckoning will show that present day lantern maker Erning David Quiwa is the great grandson of Estanislao whose daughter Fortunata married Severino David who is credited to have invented the battery operated lanterns in the 1940s. The son of Severino and Fortunata, Rodolfo David, is credited for having invented the rotor and redefined the parul sampernandu.
Going a little farther back, local historians like Geronimo Del Rosario will trace the tradition to the conversion of early Kapampangans to Catholicism in the 16th century by the Augustinian friars who introduced the practice of saintly processions during which candles were lit. As tita Tonette Orejas also pointed out, lanterns might also be related to the La Naval Fiesta that is still celebrated in Bacolor and Angeles City. The naval victory against Dutch invaders during the colonial era was said to have been celebrated with fireworks and lighting of lanterns in Bacolor, which gave birth to the La Naval fiesta. In turn, the practice was transmitted to San Fernando which used to be part of Bacolor (pre-1754), possibly along with the transfer of provincial capital in 1904. Parts of Angeles City, the former Barangay Culiat, used to be part of San Fernando.
Alejandro Roces in one account explains that the concept (linguistic or otherwise) of parol originated from the lighthouse Pharos in Alexandria, that famous wonder of the ancient word. Chinese and Japanese lantern making traditions are also chronicled to have been extant for the last couple of thousand years.
Given all the interactions of our Kapampangan ancestors with other cultures, these explanations on the lantern origins are all plausible.
The search for lantern history in more recent years is even more daunting. In the city hall alone we no longer have documents pertaining to the lantern festivals prior to 2001 and so on. Popular history has it that the lantern festival as we know it started in 1928, then held in honor of Aurora Aragon Quezon who personally awarded the winners. At that time the Quezons were making a summer place out of Mount Arayat (the Bano area where the resort is located). However, I have not seen first hand accounts of this incident taking place. Either that or we haven’t been looking really hard enough.
The earliest written account of a lantern contest taking place in San Fernando I encountered in a copy of Ing Misionero, dutifully shared by prolific writer Mr. Romeo Cabusao. The reckoning of the said document is January 1930, from which I could deduce that the event happened the previous year. It just mentions that the winner of a lantern contest was San Jose while Del Pilar and Santo Nino also crafted beautiful lanterns.
In the book “Ing Balen kung Tibuan”, photos of the 63rd Giant Lantern Festival held in 1995 were featured. Based on our calculations, if it was only in 1978 and 1979 that the festival was cancelled, the first would have been held in 1932. But this assumes that through out the World War II years the annual competition persisted.
Winningest barangay in history is Barangay Del Pilar with an unparalleled feat of championships from 1983 to 1991 under the helm of the legendary Mario Datu. Santa Lucia is said to have been champion in 1957 to 1959. The oldest giant lantern photo that I have seen is that of the 1956 champion Santo Nino, courtesy of tatang Erning. The oldest extant photo of a lantern in San Fernando dates back to 1909 and is part of the Luther Parker Collection.
Tatang Norming Del Rosario in his history of barangay Del Pilar notes that it was in 1931 that their barangay first joined the festival. More interesting is that in 1932 the barangay was said to have made a lantern entry in the image of Kingkong, created by the parent of a certain Jose Galang. Tatang Erning recalls that one of his uncles, Fernando David, was awarded by the Bishop in 1966 for a cross-shaped lantern that opened to reveal the sacred host.
Earlier this year, a giant lantern made history at the Xiamen Lantern Festival in China as the first foreign lantern featured in the exhibit. In this year’s festival, we will also be on the look out as new and exciting innovations from our lantern makers bring about a new chapter in our lantern making history.