San Fernando’s giant lantern shines in Singapore

FILIPINOS in Singapore celebrated Christianity in Asia by lighting this giant lantern commissioned from Pampanga. Contributed Photo

JOINING the celebration of Christianity in Asia, Filipinos in Singapore lit on Saturday a 14-foot Christmas lantern at Asian Civilization Museum (ACM) in that island city-state.

The lantern is made of fiberglass and rigged with 1,200 light bulbs. It is on exhibit until Sept. 12 and will be reinstalled at ACM in October in time for Christmas.

In place of a rotor, a sequencer was used to emit a series of “dancing” patterns that would light up in sync with a medley of songs, according to Pampanga artisan Arvin Quiwa. “It is a bit hi-tech,” Quiwa, 42, said.

The overseas Filipinos who commissioned the lantern are either graduates of the University of the Philippines or natives of Batangas province. “They associate Christianity with lanterns that we Filipinos display in our homes during Christmas,” Quiwa said.

San Fernando Mayor Edwin Santiago donated P250,000 to help build the lantern, in order to promote San Fernando and draw tourists to its yearly “Ligligan Parul” or Giant Lantern Festival. The festival has religious roots in Bacolor, once the capital of Pampanga and briefly, the Philippines.

It took two days to put together and mount the lantern at ACM. Quiwa’s team consisted of his sons Lervin and Adrian, nephew Bon Jove Guevarra and technicians Darwin Dayrit and Edward Abad.

Replicas of Star

In keeping up with the tradition started by Quiwa’s great-great-grandfather, Francisco Estanislao, craftsmen in San Fernando make big lanterns as replicas of the Biblical Star of Bethlehem, which guided the Three Kings to the Child Jesus more than 2,000 years ago.

Quiwa, a commerce graduate, learned lantern-making at the age of 13 by doing errands for his father Ernesto, who produced lanterns for over 50 years. The smallest lantern he made was six inches and made of fiberglass. The lantern at ACM was the biggest fiberglass piece made outside the Philippines.

Quiwa’s lanterns had been showcased by the family enterprise, Quiman Trading, in Taipei in 1994, Dubai in 2007, Singapore in 2012, and Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2012 and 2013.

Giant lanterns have also been displayed in Poland, Moscow, Ottawa, Dublin, Vienna and Beijing.

The first documented overseas lantern display was during the 75th anniversary of the Philippine Hawaii Commission in 1979. In 1989, a giant lantern played to a delighted audience at the Kunitchiwa Asian Fair in Yokohama, Japan.

In 1992—a year after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption—a giant lantern was exhibited at the World Expo in Seville, Spain. In 1993, a float that featured a giant lantern won first place at the Hollywood Christmas parade.

In 2003, then Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon sent a giant lantern to the Taiwan International Lantern Festival in Taipei. In 2005, San Fernando joined the 3rd Parol Lantern Parade in California. Tonette Orejas