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Friday, March 29, 2024

It’s Christmas Time in the City

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The Philippines has arguably the world’s longest, most colorful and happiest celebration of the Christmas Season. Across the archipelago, local governments light up and adorn the public areas, while homes deck the halls with boughs of holly.

But beyond the usual glitz of the lights, there are localities which observe the season with time-honored traditions which make Christmas more heart-warming and meaningful.

Giant Lanterns of San Fernando

Easily accessible to Metro Manilans is the Giant Lantern Festival in San Fernando, Pampanga, which holds a weeklong nightly light and sound show of 50-foot lanterns at Robinsons Starmills. The decades-old extravaganza is also a showcase of Kapampangan craftsmanship in their lantern-making industry, which has earned the city the title of being the country’s “parol capital.”

Despite the pandemic and scaling down of the events in the past two years, it never fails to mesmerize people with the dazzling lights and the hope it has come to symbolize.

Further up north in Tarlac is Belenisimo Festival where towns set up the “belen” or manger tableau of the Nativity with Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the shepherds, and the Wise Men. Road trippers can drive around the province and hop around the public plazas, but the center of the festivities is around the postcard-pretty Provincial Capitol Complex in Tarlac City.       

Citadines Cebu City one-bedroom suite.

Albay province, home of the majestic Mayon Volcano, takes pride of the “Pastores” depicts the shepherds’ jubilation on the birth of Jesus, and features musical groups interpreting the “Pastores a Belen” (“Shepherds to Bethlehem”) through song and dance.

Introduced by Spanish priests in the late-1800s, it spread across the Bicol region. It continues to be observed across different towns, with Legazpi City as the locus of performances and contests organized by the Department of Tourism and local government units.

It is also interesting to note that the Pastores is also used as a song by carolers to keep the musical tune alive.

A new go-to place in Albay is Tres Hijos Hotel and Resort in Sto. Domingo town whose Christmas Village has been drawing Bicolanos with its colorful night light displays and food park. With and a 60-foot Christmas tree as the centerpiece and silhouette of the towering perfect-coned volcano in the backgound, the place is an Instagrammable getaway for families and friends.

Pastores Bikol in Legazpi City.

Down in the Visayas, Cebu City is the epicenter of celebration with its unique mix of Old World charm and cosmopolitan living. Unknown to many, this is where the most popular Filipino carol “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” originated in 1933 under its original title “Kasadya Ning Taknaa” by Vicente Rubi.

A bastion of Catholicism dating back to five centuries, its busy city sidewalks are dressed in holiday style and in the air there’s a feeling of Christmas. As it is in the song, children are laughing and people passing, meeting smile after smile, and on every street corner you’ll hear warm greetings of the season.

With the city and the province dotted by Spanish-era churches and landmarks of Christianity, Cebu celebrates the Advent with deep devotion which spills up to the Feast of the Epiphany and the runup to the Sinulog Festival.

On the dining table, the mouth-watering lechon is an ubiquitous delicacy in almost every Cebuano home as a sign of thanksgiving and to welcome guests.

A cozy place to stay during the holidays in Citadines Cebu City, which is right smack in the heart of the old middle-class residential district. A service apartment tower, it evokes approximates the convenience and comforts of a modern house.

With the amenities of a typical home, families can recreate a Cebuano Christmas table with heirloom dishes and delicacies while on staycation in the Queen City of the South. Located at a gentrified neighborhood and the city’s heritage zones, Citadines guests can immerse with the local community as they observe the Season.

In Mindanao, the relatively-unknown City of Tangub in Misamis Occidental is shoved into the limelight, quite literally, at this time of the year as it reclaims its title of being the “Christmas Symbols Capital of the Philippines”.

While public decorations are a common sight across the country, not all Christmas symbols are created equal as Tangub outshines its counterparts with its sought-after annual thematic displays. A few years back, the city took their display to the next level as it recreated the world’s most popular landmarks in bright lights to transport guests to other parts of the globe.

At day time before the lights are turned on at nightfall, people can ascend to Belvedere-Hoyohoy View Deck on or the Hoyohoy Highland Stone Chapel Adventure Park further up for a breathtaking panorama of Mount Malindang Range Natural Park.

Take your pick and visit these places with your loved ones, because it’s Christmas time in the city.

Read full article on BusinessMirror

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