Christmas in the Philippines is a capital-C Celebration.
In the majority-Catholic country, the holiday runs through all of the “ber” months, the longest Christmas celebration in the world. Come September, the entire country eases into things with Christmas songs and lights across homes, businesses, and churches. The festivities ramp up until December, when a nine-day novena called Simbang Gabi (“night Mass” in Filipino) leads up to Christmas Day. It ultimately wraps up in January, with Three Kings’ Day.
The Philippines’ defining emblem for Christmas is the parol, an ornate and brightly-colored lantern, shaped like a star. They are customarily hung up in front of homes and businesses, a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem that guided the Magi to their final destination. Despite its religious, colonial origins, the parol stands as a totem of home and hope for Filipinos in the diaspora — a symbol of Filipino identity that is more than the sum of its history and context.
This Saturday, the lantern will be the focal point of the 22nd annual Parol Lantern Festival at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Among one of the longest-running festivals in the United States, the tradition is as much a celebration of homeland nostalgia as it is an affirmation of Filipino culture and legacy here in the city.
“Part of our mission is really to be able to help pass on our cultural traditions to future generations,” Raquel Redondiez, the director of SoMa Pilipinas, told Gazetteer SF. The theme of the evening is “Passing the Torch,” in part a celebration of longtime community activists Bernadette Sy and MC Canlas, who brought the festival to the city.
The festivities center around the Parol Stroll. Community members, Filipino businesses and nonprofits, and student affinity groups stroll from Yerba Buena Gardens to Jessie Square and shine their parol, in a ceremony akin to the fiestas and parades back in the motherland. The best of the best are honored with Tala Awards at the end of the evening. (Tala means light, and originates from Filipino mythology.)
Around 2,500 people from all over the Bay Area took part last year, Redondiez told Gazetteer SF, making it the largest community event that Yerba Buena hosts.
That collective spirit, Redondiez said, will be key to both preserving the Filipino presence in the neighborhood and ensuring that SoMa thrives amid ongoing retail and office departures.
“Part of it is a reclaiming of the space of Yerba Buena as once a thriving Filipino neighborhood that was displaced during the development of the ‘60s,” Redondiez said. “But it’s also a city-owned facility that is fairly underutilized.”
The five-hour celebration will be punctuated with a diverse array of live entertainment celebrating Filipino life in the Bay Area, including drag courtesy of self-proclaimed supergroup Filipinx; local rapper Mavy-E; and Manilatown Ancestral Ensemble and Filipino-Japanese instrumental group Kulintaiko, both of whom call on the Philippines’ indigenous musical heritage.
The event will also include the Taste of Christmas, which includes free samples of holiday staples made by chefs in the city. (What Filipino host would not have food or drink at a party?)
Snacks will include a smorgasbord of the Filipino gustatory scene: Mission Bay eatery Mestiza will bring chicken empanadas, while Mission homestyle carinderia Kababayan has classic holiday desserts like bibingka (a rice cake with shredded coconut) and cassava suman (a steamed dessert made out of yuca). Fisherman’s Wharf eatery Abacá and longtime SoMa lutong bahay staple JT Restaurant are also pitching in, while downtown Asian-fusion mall spot Izzy and Wook’s will have a food truck on-site.
“It really feels like a reunion every time I go,” said artist and content creator Rachel Lucero, who is coordinating the Taste of Christmas portion of the festival. “It feels like just such a big community effort, from the food to all of the parols. It just runs deep.”
