The story
Giant Lantern Festival in San Fernando
The Giant Lantern Festival is held in San Fernando, Pampanga, each December, showcasing enormous, elaborately engineered lanterns called parol that rotate through intricate lit patterns choreographed to music, earning San Fernando its title as the Christmas Capital of the Philippines every holiday season across the country.
The parol, a star-shaped lantern traditionally made from bamboo strips and colored paper or capiz shell, has long been a central symbol of the Filipino Christmas season, historically hung outside homes and lit to represent the Star of Bethlehem that guided the Magi, and closely associated with Simbang Gabi, the nine consecutive dawn masses observed in the lead-up to Christmas Day.