For six hours and through intermittent rains later in the night, the UP Diliman Lantern Parade, the biggest in the UP System, once again brought the community together for Christmas 2019. It went around the two-kilometer Academic Oval starting at the Oblation Plaza, winding up at the Quezon Hall Amphitheater, and culminating in a grand fire-dancing and fireworks display.
The traditional UP Lantern Parade was held in campus on December 13, 2019 with the theme of inspiring everyone to soar high, “Pumailanlang”, or “to surpass the suffering and difficulties faced by the country”. Lantern contest hall-of-famer College of Fine Arts mounted a show highlighting issues of Philippine seas.
The College of Arts and Letters emerged as the winner, among 26 “Pumailanlang” entries, with its “flying creative”. Second and third places went to the composite bird and tableau lantern of the College of Social Work and Community Development, and the Philippine Eagle lantern of the College of Science, respectively. The lanterns of the College of Music depicting a hatching egg, and the College of Home Economics depicting a bird of indigenous weaves won honorable mentions.
For the hall-of-famers group, the tentacled lantern depicting corporate greed won from among the College of Fine Arts creations. The “esprit de corps” lantern and coral baby lantern won second and third places, respectively.
DZUP station manager and Tropang RadYo host Prof. Jane Vinculado and Trending Na! host Prof. Junel Labor were the masters of ceremony. The UP Concert Chorus, the UP Singing Ambassadors, and the UP Choncords led community singing of carols; and the Legato Performing Arts Group provided a fire-dancing spectacle.
In his message, Chancellor Michael Tan said the College of Fine Arts choice of presenting Philippine marine issues was appropriate as a tribute to National Scientist and University Professor Emeritus Edgardo Gomez, who passed away recently. Tan reiterated a sub-theme of the celebrations, “liwanag lalo sa panahon ng kadiliman”, and wished the University a 20/20 vision for the future.
UP President Danilo Concepcion enumerated benefits due to qualified UP employees and contractuals for the holidays, which include the 2018 performance-based bonus, service recognition incentive, performance enhancement incentive, and collective negotiation agreement incentive.
He also announced the promotion of non-UP contractuals who have served for not less than five years to UP contractuals in the beginning of 2020.
Lantern parades are held in all UP constituent universities, with administrative offices, academic units, organizations, and community groups getting creative on their lanterns and presentations. It began in 1922, inspired by the tradition of folk trekking together in early morning darkness to attend the misa de gallo. Institutionalized by UP President Jorge Bocobo in 1934 “so that students can have a frolicsome activity before the year ends”, it has evolved in different campuses to reflect their people and milieu.
