Hang a shining star

We’re now deep into the -ber months, and for sure it’s Christmastime in the city. While tivoli lights and tinsel trees the malls are trying to outdo each other with taller and taller trees the symbol of the Pinoy Christmas is not the Christmas tree but the parol, the star lantern.

When I was a kid many many Christmases ago, our parols were simple, very basic – made of papel de japon glued onto a frame of bamboo or wooden sticks formed into a five-point star. There would be little pompoms on each of the five points, and tails suspended from the bottom two points, also made of papel de japon with cutouts as intricate as the maker could muster. The parols were red, green, white or yellow, whatever colors of the papel de japon were available.

My cousins and I once tried to make our own parols, enlisting the aid of Mang Gorio and Mang Ponso to help us with the frames. The stars were a bit tabingi (askew), we got glue all over the place, especially on our fingers, and the paper panels didn’t quite fit right, so we ended up each buying a parol from the sari-sari store (Orchid’s across the street from our compound).

While we bought the simplest, cheapest ones, some parols were more fancy, with appliqués depicting the manger scene pasted onto the center panel. The bigger lanterns could accommodate a light bulb inside, and these I loved because the sight of a star shining in the dark was always comforting, reassuring.

But having a lighted parol on our front door was not a simple matter; it was a challenge even for our ever-handy Mang Gorio and Mang Ponso, because the bulb first had to be put inside the parol (without tearing the papel de japon) and then this wire had to be connected to the power source which was the light fixture above the door. It was a major operation, plus ensuring that this DIY wiring would not short-circuit the lights in the compound!

In time, parols got fancier, some made of colored plastic sheets to survive the occasional rain (strong typhoons so late in the year are a recent, climate change-induced occurrence). Others were made of capiz shells so they could be used for many years.

And then of course there are the awesome Pampanga parols, particularly those from San Fernando, with mechanisms that control the intricate patterns of the dancing lights. The crafting of the Pampanga parol is truly a beautiful marriage of art and technology, tradition and mechanization.

The stained glass-like parols are a sight to behold. From small, 18-inch diameter parols to humongous ones that need a 10-wheeler truck to transport, Pampanga parols are second to none when it comes to Christmas lanterns.

This Christmas, I urge you to hang a parol in your window or door – whether it’s a simple one of papel de japon (you can even try to make your own…you’ll probably have better results than we got!) or capiz or a fancy one from Pampanga, hang out a star to – literally and figuratively – shine in the night and banish the darkness, like the star in the Judean sky that night long, long ago that led the magi – and the rest of humankind – to the Light of the world.