Giant lanterns light up Christmas in Catholic Philippines

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This photo taken on Dec 14 shows people watching during the Giant Lantern Festival in San Fernando, Pampanga.

PHOTO: AFP

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines – In the Christmas-mad Philippines, thousands cheer as hand-crafted lanterns towering 6m high light up the night sky in San Fernando, north-west of the country’s capital.

The dazzling display of lights, accompanied by religious and festive imagery and soundtracked by Filipino rap and Christmas carols, is part of the annual Giant Lantern Festival.

Held mid-December each year, the festival acts as a platform to highlight the region’s famed lantern industry, which first started more than 100 years ago.

Local designer Karl Quiwa, 31, told AFP it takes a team of 20 over a three-month period to build a light display, adding that he sees the effort as a “religious obligation”.

Mr Quiwa’s ancestors built their first piece for the inaugural 1908 festival – which has continued to this day and was only interrupted by war and the pandemic.

The giant lanterns, submitted for competition at the festival, use 12,000 50-watt bulbs synchronised by 15km of electric cables and symbolise the Star of Bethlehem.

The massive light pieces can weigh up to a tonne, with costs soaring to a million pesos (S$22,020).

Smaller versions are also produced by the city’s craftsmen and adorn lamp posts, office buildings and homes across the archipelago nation of 116 million which is home to Asia’s largest Catholic population.

A sixth-generation descendant of San Fernando’s pioneer lantern-maker, Mr Quiwa said apart from religion, he was proud to carry on the family tradition of “cheering people up