The Filipino Friends Blog

Volcano – Mayon

I hear that there is another volcano in the Philippines threatening to erupt!  How many do we cahve still that is active? I know of one, that is being watched and its in Camiguin Island…

I found this story when I was trying to find out more information and its great to know that we can come altogether in need and celebrate a wonderful holiday season!  This story was written by Aaron J. Leichman – The Christian Post Reporter

Tens of thousands of Filipinos celebrated Christmas in temporary evacuations centers Friday after having fled their homes in fear of a major volcanic eruption.

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  (Photo: AP Photo/ Aaron Favila)

  Members of the Philippine Armed Forces hold a dance contest with victims of a recent fire in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines on Christmas day Friday Dec. 25, 2009. Many residents celebrated the day inside tents and evacuation sites as fire gutted hundreds of shanties two days before Christmas leaving thousands homeless.

With the alert level for the Philippines’ Mayon volcano at the second-highest stage, more than 40,000 evacuees had to stay away from their homes and settle for a Christmas in crowded gymnasiums and schools, where they shared rations of noodles, fried fish and fruit, and where children opened donated presents.

According to the National Disaster Coordinating Council, at least 9,754 families, or 46,655 people, are staying in 26 evacuation centers all over the Philippines’ Albay province as of 8 a.m. Thursday.

Though the weeklong eruption of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon has been moderate to date, volcanologists say it could escalate within days.

Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), told local news agencies that his recommendation would be for people to stay outside a six-kilometer radius from the volcano’s summit to avoid the danger of pyroclastic flows, or the flow of volcanic ash, dust, rocks and debris that rushes down the slope of a volcano.

In its bulletin for Thursday, Phivolcs said Mayon “continued to show an intense level of activity during the past 24-hour observation period.” Pyroclastic flows have reportedly been reaching speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour and temperatures of up to 420 degrees Celsius.

“People must realize the danger in the current activity, if they are still inside the danger zones,” Solidum said, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

In response to Phivocls’s recommendations, government officials have been forcibly ordering residents to leave their homes, telling them to take only possessions they are able to carry.

Despite the circumstances, many of the evacuees were able to celebrate Christmas – a major event in the predominantly Catholic country.

In addition to receiving gifts, evacuees were entertained by soldiers in Santa hats and students in clown costumes, who sang songs and performed magic tricks.

Meanwhile, forcible evacuation continued Friday in at-risk villages within the danger zones. Forced evacuation was going on Friday at Ligao City as well as the towns of Guinobatan and Camalig in the northwest, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

~HAPPY CHRISTMAS~!

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Wishing everyone a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and hope that you and yours have a great holiday spending it loved ones, friends, family!

From my home to yours.. have a wonderful CHRISTMAS to each of you!

Filipino Christmas :)

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Well, i found this very interesting explanation of how the Filipino’s celebrate this holiday season. In my search, I’ve read quite a few different views…the article below I found in here. Read it and you might learn something new.. I did…I hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season with lots of love from family, friends throughout the world! I almost forgot that we hang those star shaped lanterns outside the windows of the houses…one day, I will be home for the holiday season!! 😀

The appearance of bright, star-shaped lanterns along the roads in the Philippines signals the start of the Christmas Season in this country. Filipinos celebrate the Christmas Season probably way before people in other countries do. Usually, these star-shaped lanterns called “parol” will show up as early as September, along with the many other symbols of the Philippine holidays. For the Filipino, the presence of the syllable “ber” after the main numerical root word of a month (Septem-, for example) indicates the start of Christmas. Many Filipinos also humorously associate the syllable “ber” with “brrr,” the sound one makes when the cold month of December approaches. The “parol” is thus a symbol of anticipation, for indeed, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for Filipinos, as it may be for people in other countries.

Parols come in many different shapes and sizes, although, as earlier mentioned, the star-shaped pattern remains the most commonly used design. More recent designs include that of angels, christmas trees, happy faces, Santa Claus’ face, and even commercial products like Coke or beer cans. The basic concept is the same for these lanterns. There is a source of light, usually with blinkers, within a design wrought out of a casing made of bamboo sticks. The sides of the lantern are translucent, owing to the materials often used to make them, such as Japanese paper or colored plastic. Meticulously made lanterns employ layers of these materials, as well as a variety of stickers, creating illusions of depth and contrast even though there is only one source of light, which comes from within the lantern itself. Many lanterns even employ a moving mechanism, thereby exposing its many sides to observers passing by. Most Filipinos simply hang their parols on their doors and windows, keeping the streets of the Philippines aglow with colorful designs for over 3 months.

The contest parols used in yearly competitions at the Paskuhan Village in Pampanga, Philippines, are actually giant lanterns studded with bulbs all over. Each bulb is painstakingly arranged in such a way that its wire will touch a huge rotating wheel behind the lantern’s face only at a particular timing. The timing is dictated by the location of “catch wires” which connect with the individual bulbs’ wires to light them up in time with a musical piece, usually a popular dance tune. Because the lanterns are gigantic, they have to be mounted on huge trucks, with their “timing wheels” loaded on to the truck as well, along with the power source, usually arrays of batteries when outlets are not available. The lanterns are judged according to the synchronicity of their bulbs lighting with the music being played, as well as for the artistry that went into making them. The event is an annual crowd-drawer in the Philippines, and understandably costs millions to come up with.

The parol is a showcase of some of the Filipino’s distinctive qualities of ingenuity, hospitality and passion for hope and peace. Ingenuity, because the materials used for parol are varied. Some parols are made of indigenous materials such as bamboo, or a pliable wood called rattan. Sometimes, especially during hard-pressed occasions, parols are made from garbage materials like plastic containers and newspapers. Sometimes, small shells are used in intricate designs to build up whole parols up to 5 feet in diameter. The parol is a symbol for hospitality because the people who hang parols in their houses often intend to have visitors during the Christmas Season, whom they treat with much care and attention. Finally, the parol is a symbol of the Filipino’s longing for hope and peace, because the people who remember Christmas in any way such as decorating their houses also remember the meaning behind the commercial overtures and gift-giving so peculiar to this season.