Army’s belen depicting images of Marawi City.
TARLAC CITY — Battle-scarred Marawi City takes center stage in this year’s Belenismo, a pageant of “belen” or creative dioramas of the biblical Nativity scene that has been drawing tourists here for the last 10 years.
Army soldiers built giant images of the baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, which tower over a rendition of the capital city of Lanao del Sur province in front of Camp General Servillano Aquino in Barangay San Miguel here. The miniature Marawi features several buildings, including a mosque.
The giant belen was designed and built by soldiers who saw action during the 150-day campaign to retake Marawi from terrorists, Lt. Gen. Rolando Joselito Bautista, Army chief, said on Monday when he unveiled the display at the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command.
SM City Tarlac’s Nativity scene.
44 dioramas
The Army’s belen was among 44 Nativity dioramas on display around the city for the 10th Belenismo, an annual showcase of belen-making that was started in 2007.
“This belen is a tribute to their comrades — the heroes of Marawi. May their memories be forever etched in the hearts of our countrymen,” Bautista said.
Almost every town in Tarlac has put up its own belen. Corporations and nongovernment organizations also set up their own nativity dioramas that tourists can view along the main highway until the new year.
“No one wants to fight a war in his own shores. No one wants terrorism to gain a foothold in his own country. The siege of Marawi is a part of our history that we don’t want revisited. We Filipinos must go all out to help our Muslim brothers and sisters rebuild [and] recover,” Bautista said.
Luisita Mall’s Christmas diorama is simple yet elegant.
Christmas symbol
The belen is the true symbol of Christmas, according to Isabel Cojuangco-Suntay, founder of the Tarlac Heritage Foundation that organized the Belenismo.
She said Joseph, Mary and Jesus were the real stars of the Yuletide—not the Christmas tree, the lanterns or Santa Claus.
“We want to bring the message across that Christmas is all about Jesus Christ and no one else. This is the very reason we at the Tarlac Heritage Foundation worked hard for the Belenismo in Tarlac,” said Suntay’s daughter and foundation chair, Dr. Isa Suntay.
Tarlac had been declared the belen capital by the Department of Tourism.
Capas town’s windmill-themed “belen.”
This week, motorists have stopped and spent time watching the brightly lit belen now lining the streets.
The town of Concepcion designed a nativity scene where the Holy Family was enveloped by a giant fish.
In Capas town, a Dutch windmill evoked a European Christmas diorama, but its version of the Holy Family was also adorned with “tinapa” (smoked fish), the town’s key product.
The diorama’s components were flowers that might scare guests if they knew what these were made of. The flowers were sculpted from dried carabao manure collected from the Crow Valley gunnery range in Barangay Sta. Juliana near the trekking route to Mt. Pinatubo.