Gearing up for Christmas? Make your own parol lantern.
For twenty years now, I have been doing parol making workshops in San Francisco in conjunction with the San Francisco Annual Parol Festival.
The instructions - step-by-step - of parol making has improved through the years, and this video is a culmination of our own experience in using the available supplies and materials in our area.
I remember when we started in 2003, we used BBQ skewers or barbecue sticks, wires, tissue papers, and cellophane in making five-point stars. I frequented Dollar Stores in Mission to check what they have that I can use, such as materials for pinata and birthday parties.
We requested our participants in our workshops, which we started in October as a build-up for Parol Festival in December that year, not to bring home the parol they made. Our message was clear: in order to have a Parol Stroll along Mission Street, we need to have enough number of parols, and make the YBCA Forum, the venue for the Holiday celebration brightened with beautiful and colorful lanterns.
The inaugural Parol Lantern Festival has enhanced our presence and community's visibility in the multicultural fabrics of San Francisco, and fore mostly our immigrant community has affirmed and fully expressed the bayanihan spirit, which is a Filipino virtue of working together for a cause or a project.
On that historic and magical moment of December 15, 2003, Mary McCue of the MJM management approached me and Bernadette Sy of Filipino American Development Foundation (FADF) with excitement. "This is the festival I have been looking for," she says with joyous voice, "can we have this an annual event and have a lighting ceremony to brighten Yerba Buena during the holiday season?"
The following year, the Parol Lantern Festival was supported by the Community Arts and Education Program of the San Francisco’s Arts Commission. FADF was able to bring supplies and materials from the Philippines, particularly the hard to get pre-cut bamboos, papel de japon, and cellophane.
From then on, we have provided free parol making workshops to various churches, schools, organizations, government offices, including community centers and museums - Asian Arts Museum, Zeum, Exploratorium, San Francisco's public libraries.
This video was produced by Kularts featuring Gene Apellido, the homegrown parol master of SoMa Pilipinas, Although, his first parol was done in 2003, Gene succeeded in designing more elegant and finest works of the five-point star lanterns by using a variety of materials and fabrics, and lights. Gene is a great parol artist.
This video was released on November 5, 2020, during the height of pandemic, when parol making workshops were only held via Zoom and Facebook watch.
In 2021, we had our in-person workshops at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission Street), which was very successful.
There are two more parol making workshops scheduled at YBCA before the Parol Lantern Festival, November 2 and 3.
Not on this video, the other steps in parol making are decorating the parol with the tails (buntot) and other ornaments, and I added in this year's workshop the putting and designing with LED lights.
Wherever you may be, if you are interested in making your own parol for your family, organization, church, and community, you can visit my homepage and contact me.