Giant Lantern Festival

The tradition & historical record

The Giant Lantern Festival (Kapampangan: Ligligan Parul) is an annual festival held in mid-December in the City of San Fernando in the Philippines. The festival features a competition of giant parol lanterns. Because of the popularity of the festival, the city has been nicknamed the "Christmas Capital of the Philippines". Central Luzon Television is the festival's official television partner since 2008. ¹

The San Fernando lantern industry evolved from the Giant Lantern Festival of San Fernando. The festival, which is held every December, finds its roots in Bacolor where a much simpler activity was held. Following the transfer of the provincial capital from Bacolor to San Fernando in August 1904, this lantern event followed as well. "Ligligan Parul" was said to have started in San Fernando in 1904. Others believe that the "Ligligan Parul" began in 1908. This predecessor of the modern-day Giant Lantern Festival was actually a religious activity that we know today as “lubenas.” The lanterns measured just two feet in diameter, a far cry from the fifteen feet of the lanterns seen today in the festival. These were created in each barrio from bamboo and other locally available materials. During the nine-day novena before Christmas, which coincided with the simbang gabi from December 16 to 24, these paruls were brought around each barrio in procession to their visita. Before the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the lanterns were brought to the town church together with the barrio patrons. This tradition gradually evolved as the lanterns became bigger and the designs became more intricate. Later, one big lantern was made for each barrio, which was created through a cooperative effort. Each resident contributed to its construction, from the concept and design to the materials and labor. In the end, these lanterns became a symbol of unity for the barrios. It was in 1931 that electricity was introduced to the San Fernando lantern, thus sparking the birth of the first Giant Lantern Festival. The added illusion of dancing lights highlighted the bright colors and intricate designs of these Giant Lanterns. ¹

In the 2019 show Where's Waldo? Wally and Wenda went to San Fernando, Pampanga. The festival has been featured in various shows such as Biyahe ni Drew and Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Giant Lantern Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Giant Lantern Festival is December festival in San Fernando, Philippines, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²