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Monday, November 19, 2012

Miniature Christmas Parols (Filipino Christmas Lantern)

Christmas is 27 days away. I am making my old time favorite miniature paper parols. My version of the parol is made out of paper. Using different pieces like punched daisy flowers, circles, stars, tissue paper all put together with glue and glue gun. Traditionally the parols are larger and have star shaped with bamboo frame sticks covered with colored Japanese paper or crepe paper and the most common form is a five-pointed star with two decorative "tails" made of tissue papers. Nowadays there are few more types of the parols made with capiz and with lights.
More information I got from wikipedia. A Filipino paról vendor's stall, showing the myriad designs and colours available Nowadays, the materials range from plastic, shells, glass, beads, foil, feathers, hemp, leaves, seeds, soft drink straws, wood and even metal. They usually comes in various sizes, from small, tinsel and foil lanterns to gigantic ones that are electrically lit at night, and may have one, three or more tails aside from the ubiquitous two. Some have a surrounding "halo" while the number of points may usually range from four to around ten (higher numbers are not unknown). As for stellate patterns, more complex shapes that are seen are the rose, the bromeliad, the snowflake and the sea urchin. Other designs aside from the common stellate pattern include that of angels, huge flowers, Santa Claus's face, reindeer, happy faces, and Christmas trees, among other Western holiday symbols. Recently, innovations from Pampanga include production of lanterns with electronic lights that can be programmed to produce a dancing effect, as is the use of LED rope lights, known as "flexilight" lanterns. The original stellate design of the paról remains common in the Philippines and considered distinct for Filipinos. The traditional craft of lantern-making is usually taught to schoolchildren around Christmastime, but actual manufacture is now primarily done in the barrios and the poblacions and is rarely done in urban areas. A notable exception is Parañaque, a city in Metro Manila, which has the largest paról-making industry in the Philippines, and San Fernando, Pampanga, where a lot of paróls also originate.

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