Lantern Parade Fun

Had a blast at UP’s Lantern Parade yesterday, the annual tradition of the University in celebration of the last day of classes for the year, as students, teachers, and other members of the community prepare for the holidays.

Of course, this is UP, which means an activity as seemingly innocent as a christmas parade becomes political in nature. This year’s Christmas theme was “Kapaskuhan, Kalikasan, Kinabukasan,” apt, as world leaders meet for the Copanhagen Summit, which, as of the time of this writing, has “descended into chaos”.

Other than the issue of Climate Change, Colleges such as the College of Law, College of Mass Communication, and College of Social Work and Community Development as well as the umbrella group Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (STAND-UP) has taken the initiative to highlight the slaughter in Maguindanao and call for justice for those slain.

In front of the College of Engineering where we watched the parade, everyone was chanting “I-backhoe si Gloria!” as STAND-UP’s backhoe float passed the college front. The festive mood and the holidays does little to diminish the outrage still felt by the nation for the merciless Ampatuan Massacre as well as for the administration that has sown the seeds for something like that to happen. Oh well, I digress.

Of course, all were looking forward to what the College of Fine Arts has to offer for this year’s parade. Their theme, was Asia, hence a Chinese Dragon, Japanese Samurai Warriors and a giant Halo-halo.

But, the college saved the best for last, and nothing could have prepared us for a giant Manny Pacquiao and her mom, Aling Dionisia.

The parade ended with a fireworks display, giving me my first oppurtunity to shoot fireworks since I had my DSLR. I didn’t have a tripod though so i had to make do with my camera being handheld. However, I am proud of some of the pictures I took and I now look forward to shooting more fireworks as the new year approaches.

I hope that you enjoy the following gallery. Thanks for Joe Mandia and Olga Guela for taken some of the photos in this gallery.