Christmas is fast approaching its only 39 days before Christmas. Yesterday Vince, hubby saw the different style of parol in the street. Then I bought parol for my Christmas decoration. The parol is made from wire, plastic and capiz with shining Christmas light that gives the happiness for every Filipino during the Christmas season. Anyhow, paróls is tradionally have a star-shaped framework made of bamboo sticks which are then covered by coloured pieces of either Japanese paper or crepe paper. The most common form is a five-pointed star with two decorative “tails”.
Paról is an ornamental, star-shaped Christmas lantern from the Philippines. It is traditionally made out of bamboo and paper and comes in various sizes and shapes, but generally the basic star pattern remains dominant. It’s also retains its original association with the Simbang Gabi ritual, a series of dawn masses that lasts for nine days. These lanterns remain until January, traditionally removed after Ephipany to honour the Three Kings and their visit to the infant Jesus.
I choose belen design because it’s a Filipino term derived from the Spanish word for Bethlehem. Two or three-dimensional figures are usually found in a Christian nativity scene. Inside a barn or stable shows the child Jesus lying in a manger while Mary and Joseph watch over him. Oftentimes, the scene includes the Three Wise Men or Magi (with or without their camels), the angels, the shepherds and their flock, a donkey, an ox, and the Star of Bethlehem that led the magi to Jesus’ birthplace.
