Christmas Season in Ilocos

To start the Christmas celebration in Ilocos Norte, a Lantern Parade was held in Laoag City on December 12, 2008. This was on its second year. All of the municipalities and cities of the province participated in and fielded in entries for the competition.

There was a parade of the lanterns as well as floats of the participants. Muses were on board the floats as they were candidates for Ms Tourism as well. The lanterns were created from indigenous materials such as garlic, corn seeds, rice, mongo seeds, bugayong seeds, twigs, leaves, coconuts, bamboos and others.

Sea shells were used by the Currimao entry where they created male and female seahorses with a star in between placed on a boat. Burgos town has a star lantern with a miniature lighthouse highlighted with a revolving light bulb. The town of Solsona created a shape of a life-size deer with a star on top of his back. Pinili showcased a lantern made of basket of garlic. San Nicolas featured their damili. Adams' lantern was made of broom. The designers of these lanterns as well as the floats were indeed very creative. Carasi’s float caught my attention since it was a huge one and equally nice. Surely, they exerted so much effort for this.

The ethnic tribes of the municipalities of Adams, Carasi and Dumalneg were also featured in the event. They presented a cultural performance. Booths of the participating municipalities were on display in front of the capitol. Other activities being held were Ms Tourism pageant, abel iloko fashion show, singing competition, fireworks and the awarding ceremony.