A GLIMPSE OF THE UP LANTERN PARADE 2010

What is the purpose of a lantern parade? First of all it is to unite all the sectors of UP to render the season meaningful by expressing their ideas about it visually and possibly orally. Secondly, it is to showcase the diverse talents of the students, faculty and employees in terms of artistically giving significance to the Christmas season. Thirdly it is to honor a tradition of the UP community which has been celebrating the season for many, many years now.

However as I had a glimpse of the parade last Friday, 17 December 2017 in the campus, I discovered certain things which show a rather dull interpretation of Christmas. It lacked that jolly and optimistic mood which should be the prevailing sentiment as December is the end of the year and that we should look hopeful of the events of the coming year. Instead, many of the floats provided a stirring commentary on the current issues of the day which could have been "torturing" the floatmakers.

Pharmacy hired ati-atihan dancers to grace their file, meaning outsiders providing a more colorful participation for them. Why should this be the case? The college of human kinetics presented a man in brief showing all his muscles on his chest and limbs. But is this all that kinetics is all about? What came to my mind instead were the scenes of Chinese acrobats on stage, displaying their prowess in showing their bodies flying high and going against gravity. Isn't that what kinetics should have shown-- the capabilities of the students to express themselves bodily? Then the college of arts and letters did not move me at all -- or I must have missed some objects they could have presented -- as the float and parade had no reference at all to these, arts and letters. The college of law presented justice with a covered mouth. I think Lady Justice does not speak but rather the scales do -- showing whether law is tilted instead of being balanced. Hence the scene should have shown the scales depicting the lopsided state of justice in our country.

The student Stand-Up party was a let-down. This early, the students are being drawn into a sloganeering type of politicking. Its float showed PNoy in yellow shirt and pants of blue and white signifying the American ties, thereby implying that he is a puppet of the US. I do think that student organizations should not come up with radical bureaucratism nor sloganeering politics as well as thoughts in black and white. Most of all, they should already change their view of the United States -- a US ruled by the Democratic Party, certainly is different from that of the Republican.

Instead the students should be made to appreciate first of all the plethora of political theories and principles before (or probably never) hardening to that anti-American stance all the time. College studies are meant to make the students all-around personalities with principled perspectives and not black-and-white stance to make them look like caricatures themselves of the puppets they project.

The Statistics float looked like a mosque and when I asked one student why it was so -- she could not answer properly. So I ventured an explanation -- math was first discovered by the Arabs. Meanwhile the Beta Sigmans looked like Ku Klux Klan - with black-covered heads and faces - making themselves project that of racist acts of the white men against the blacks. What should have been a Christmassy atmosphere turned lugubriously Lenten.

The Institute of Biology was very apropos -- while it showed the institution 's lament over the recent lamentable deaths of three biologists, led by Leonardo Co, it also showed an optimistic view of biology as a discipline -- a butterfly emerging from its cocoon or Metamorphosis. Along the same vein, Architecture showed students wearing architectural designs of various edifices around the world like the NYC skyline with a green statues of Liberty (real woman in green make -up and clothes similar to the Christmas figure I had seen in NYC in 1991), the Taj Mahal of India, the Pyramids of Egypt, and many more. I really admire the creativity of the students.

The above were the ones I had seen during the parade. But I went to the College of Fine Arts to look at their floats. This college is now in the Hall of Fame as its floats had always won first prize every year. One float that struck me was done by the Industrial Design showing a big metallic fish with sharp teeth. One young girl in second grade at UPIS toured me around the different floats how each was lit up during the lantern. Then we went around and viewed the different small sculptures that stood by the trees in the driveway of the College. One was that of a bamboo opening up and with two beings -- a woman and a man. And she wondered what it meant. So I told her about the myth of Malakas at Maganda which is our Philippine interpretation of the creation of the earth and her inhabitants. I even sang to her my composition how we should disseminate that myth to all.

To my mind, the lantern parade must undergo a more thorough preparation to make it truly attractive and memorable. Paraders should be distinctly different in terms of costumes by departments, colleges and institutions. The floats should have a critical but creative and optimistic view of the season and the year to come and should be related to the discipline or field of study of the particular float group.

And most of all, -- No more sloganeering please. There is a time and a place for that. Instead let us come up with more creative phrases to drive home our point, something like -- LET JUSTICE AND PEACE REIGN IN THE COUNTRY. Or, DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES -- TOUR OUR ISLANDS AND MEET OUR OWN PEOPLE FACE TO FACE. Or -- LABOR NOT FOR SHORTCHANGING. UPHOLD THE DIGNITY OF LABOR. JOBS IN THE PHILIPPINES, NOT ABROAD. OIL OWNERSHIP FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT FOR THE GREEDY. PESO PURCHASING POWER -- INCREASE! CELPHONE CHARGES - DECREASE! GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE NOT FOR THE FEW. Aren't these more positive messages? Let us disseminate optimism, not frustration and disappointment.

Happy Holidays, Folks.

P.S. Let's pray for the immediate recovery from cancer of Prof. Nita Abrogar, UP College of Music Piano Department, for whom Fides Cuyugan Asension held a fundraising recently.