Fun Facts about the Parol Lantern Festival in San Francisco
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The Parol Lantern Festival at Yerba Buena Center (Photo by Raymond Virata)
This year’s annual must-see event is on Saturday, December 14,2024, with indoor activities at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Forum and a Parol Stroll around Yerba Buena Gardens and Jessie Square near St. Patrick’s Church in San Francisco.
Several fun facts about the Parol Festival are worth sharing with anyone who’s unaware of the annual Festival, or perhaps even to those who have consistently enjoyed the Parol Festival but are unaware of its origin and successes.
Fun Fact #1: The Parol Festival was an offshoot of a soft opening for the Bayanihan Community Center
The Bayanihan Community Center (Photo by Raymond Virata)
I know this firsthand because I was working as consultant for the Filipino American Development Foundation (FADF) when its Executive Director Bernadette Sy, daughter of Dr. Mario Borja, the owner of the Delta Hotel, approached me for a soft opening of the new Bayanihan Community Center on 1010 Mission Street in South of Market in San Francisco.
In 2003, the rehabilitation of the five-story building on the corner of 6th and Mission was almost completed but not yet ready for occupancy. After the 1997 fire destroyed the Delta Hotel, the Borja Family, decided to sell the property to non-profit housing developer TODCO on the condition that it will be renamed Bayanihan House, the building’s section of affordable housing units on 88 6th Street, and the Bayanihan Community Center on 1010 Mission Street.
According to Bernadette, the soft opening in December was to reassure the many donors and sponsors of the fundraising campaign that the tenant improvement for the Bayanihan Community Center was on track despite the delay in getting the permit for full occupancy of the Bayanihan House.
The Parol Festival, as I suggested, was the most appropriate activity for the soft opening in December. My proposal to the FADF Board included parol-making workshops from October as a build-up to the main event, culminating in a parol stroll, a procession of Christmas lanterns produced by workshop participants.
Fun Fact #2: The Parol Making Workshop (PMW) is a rearticulation of the iconic image and practice of the Bayanihan spirit.
Parols (Photo by Raymond Virata)
The new name of the building – Bayanihan – is a Tagalog word unfamiliar to foreign and mainstream English speakers. In the Philippines, bayanihan is often depicted through the iconic image of villagers coming together and physically lifting and carrying a house, typically a nipa hut, to a new location.
The challenge of FADF in renaming the Delta Hotel as Bayanihan House and Community Center was how to introduce and promote the spirit of bayanihan to both Filipino Americans and the general public. Bayanihan is a deeply rooted Filipino tradition that embodies the spirit of communal unity and cooperation.
I shared with the Board that bayanihan has thrived in my own childhood town of San Fernando, Pampanga. San Fernando, now renowned as the Christmas Capital of the Philippines, is the home of the Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul). Months before and during the Christmas season villagers come together to produce parol and giant lanterns for their lubenas to showcase at the town plaza’s Christmas Eve Celebration.
The St Patrick’s parish priest, the late Msgr. Fred Bitanga, supported the soft opening plan to make the Parol festival pair with St. Patrick’s early morning novena mass (Simbang Gabi).
On December 15, 2003, the first Parol Lantern Festival and Parade was held with a parol stroll from Bayanihan Community Center on Mission Street and 6th to the Yerba Buena Center for the Art’s Forum on Mission and 3rd Street.
Fun Fact #3: The festival was renamed Parol Lantern Festival to prevent confusing it with “parole” or parolees from prison.
The Parol Lantern Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens (Photo by Raymond Virata)
Among the first tasks in mounting a festival for the first time was to rally community volunteers taking advantage of previous outreach activities we had done among Fil-Am groups and in the SoMa neighborhood. Our timing was also good as we also participated in the annual Positively Sixth Street Fair held in August in South of Market. We had our table set with a big banner “Parol Festival,” “Wanted Volunteers” posters, with a sign-in sheet for volunteers. We were surprised at the turn-out; a long line of Sixth Street folks signed up with some saying, “Wow, this is amazing, I never thought a festival is organized for us.” We inquired why they were interested in volunteering and were flabbergasted at their response: “We are parolees. Some of us were just released from jails; we thank you for organizing this festival for us.”
Right after this, our team regrouped and decided to rebrand our festival as Parol Lantern Festival. The challenge, however, was in writing the texts; the default spell check app automatically replaces parol with “parole,” hence, we also had many typos in our communication.
Fun Fact #4: Parol in Yerba Buena Gardens supplements the Giant Christmas Tree in Union Square, a North and South Lighting tradition in San Francisco.
The Christmas Tree at San Francisco’s Union Square (Photo by Raymond Virata)
During the festival, Mary McCue, the owner of MJM Management, commended Bernadette and me for a very successful event. What struck us was not only her praise but also her offer: “Can we do this annually? I have been wanting lighting events in Yerba Buena Gardens like what we have in Union Square--the Macy’s Union Square Tree Lighting.” This giant Christmas tree lighting tradition is a beloved San Francisco holiday staple.
We inquired why they were interested in volunteering and were flabbergasted at their response: “We are parolees. Some of us were just released from jails; we thank you for organizing this festival for us.”
Fun Fact #5: Parol illuminates the community, radiantly claiming SoMa Pilipinas as a Filipino Cultural Heritage District in America and bringing it out of cultural invisibility.
The Parol Lantern Festival when it was held outside St. Patrick’s church in 2017 (Photo by Raymond Virata)
SoMa Pilipinas was officially established as San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural Heritage District in 2016. Then in July 2017, SoMa Pilipinas achieved state recognition through the California Arts Council as one of the 14 designated cultural districts in California.
One of the missions of SoMa Pilipinas is to increase the visibility and celebrate the contributions of the Filipino community in SoMa, San Francisco, California and the Diaspora.
One year after the inaugural Parol Lantern Festival, the San Francisco Arts Commission, through its Community Arts and Education (CAE) program, provided funding to support the parol-making workshops and promote the festival’s visibility. The rest is history.
Related Links to the Fun Facts Article
https://www.parollanternfestival.com/
https://www.somapilipinas.org/
https://www.fadf-sf.org/
https://www.bayanihancc.org/
https://www.mccanlast.com/
https://vimeo.com/114621991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhVcJ07Pil0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8JsoBk8v60
MC Canlas is the founding director of the San Francisco’s Parol Lantern Festival and a longtime consultant of Filipino American Development Foundation.
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