Look what they’ve done to the parol!

by R.E. Eclevia

It used to be every Filipino schoolboy’s project before Christmas break, and he took to it with alacrity. For many a lad the parol, if he did it right, could be a chance to mollify the teacher he had been driving to distraction the past few months. Even the slow learner could earn enough points to make it to the next grade.

The teacher would often pick the best of the lot for herself. There were many parol lying around after all—as many as there were male pupils in school. It didn’t matter a bit if the owner would have nothing to enliven his home with. That the teacher coveted the result of his labors only meant he did a darn good job. Most important of all the deal on his promotion was sealed. And, of course, he could always make another parol.

Making the parol is simplicity itself. First you need to construct the frame. For material select a mature bamboo stem and split and cut it into five narrow slats of equal length. Remove the soft inner side from each slat, leaving only the tough outer layer, and smooth out the sharp corner. Arrange the slats to make a five-point star and tie them together at every place where they meet and intersect.

That is the first half of the frame. To make the other half, repeat the process. Now, set one half of the frame over the other and fasten firmly at all five points. Then prop the two halves apart with little poles the circumference of a pencil but half its length and rivet them on both ends with finishing nails so that the frame bulges in the middle and tapers down in all five directions. Finally, cover the frame with papel de japon of whatever color that suits your fancy.

The parol made its first appearance in Bacolor, Pampanga, on Christmas of 1904, or so the old folks there claim. It attracted country-wide attention when, in 1928, the neighboring town of San Fernando featured it in a parade held in honor of then President Manuel L. Quezon and First Lady Aurora Aragon Quezon, who had come for a visit.

From there the parol spread to the whole archipelago, except perhaps in Muslim-dominated Mindanao.

It is in San Fernando that the parol has evolved into something no schoolboy could ever dream of putting together. The townpeople, noted for their artistry, have been coming up, year after year, with hundreds of different designs. Technology plays a part. The parol is now fitted with an electronic-driven sequencer that makes lights of different sizes and colors go on and off at intervals. The interplay of the blues and the reds and the greens is so intricate that they seem to merge or morph into one another.

Lantern-making is a multimillion peso industry. Its biggest boost came, paradoxically, when San Fernando suffered the worst disaster in history.

In 1995, four years after Mount Pinatubo erupted, lahar descended on the town and buried it in some places. Businesses folded up and people started leaving in droves. Faced with the imminent possibility that he would soon be mayor without a constituency, Mayor Rey Aquino organized the lantern-makers into groups and told them to start producing lanterns in quantity, while he and his staff embarked on an intensive promotion campaign.

The effort paid off. Sales more than doubled, with orders from all parts of the country pouring in. Interest in the lantern has never slackened ever since.

Obviously, however, the demand is seasonal. The burgeoning cottage industry cannot rely on the lantern alone. To occupy themselves the rest of the year, craftsmen design TV program backdrops, decorate town and barrio plazas during fiestas, create restaurant motiffs, and yes! make lanterns, but this time based on corporate logos.

An enterprising fellow, Roland Quiambao of del Pilar, San Fernando, won the contract to decorate the DoT (Department of Tourism) building on Kalaw Street in Manila and the APEC Conference site in Subic Bay. He was subsequently commissioned to decorate a town plaza in Saipan, where a substantial number of Filipinos reside as immigrant, and a mall in Taiwan, destination for hundreds of thousands of Filipino contract workers.

The Dubai City government asked him to create lanterns and decors for the 2000 Ramadan Festival. The inspiration was not the Star of Bethlemen but, you guessed it, the Crescent Moon of Islam.

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