Parol

A Filipino Christmas lantern

The lantern's name comes from the Spanish farol, and in Philippine languages lanterns are also called paritaan. A frame of bamboo strips is covered with coloured Japanese paper or crêpe paper, and a candle, a coconut oil lamp or a carbide lamp once gave the light; most are electric now. Star shapes usually carry between four and ten points, and a lantern can have one, three or more tails, or a ring of light around it. Sizes range from small foil lanterns to enormous ones lit at night.

Origins and history

Paper lanterns reached the islands before Spanish rule, as they did elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The link with Christmas began under Spanish colonial rule, when people carried small lights in the nine-day novena procession before midnight mass, and in the Panunulúyan play that reenacts Joseph and Mary searching for a room in Bethlehem. Performers and onlookers carried bamboo-and-paper lanterns, then hung them on their houses afterwards. Early lanterns were plain oblong or rectangular shapes in white. By the 1830s designs had grown more varied, and each household made its own by hand.

Making and design

In Pampanga, lantern-makers follow a design of four concentric layers. At the centre sits the tambor, or drum. Around it comes the siku-siku, the elbow, where star shapes cross each other. A circular rim called palimbun, from a word for the novena procession, surrounds that, and the puntetas, the tips, carry small fine details. Materials now include plastic, capiz shell, glass, beads, foil, feathers, hemp, leaves, seeds, straws, wood and metal. Besides stars, makers turn out angels, flowers, snowflakes, sea urchins, reindeer, Santa faces and Christmas trees.

The Lubenas procession

Lubenas processions in Pampanga date from the 1800s. A cross-shaped lantern leads, followed by the asan, a fish lantern with hinged jaws, and then twelve star lanterns, one for each apostle, around a carriage of religious images, with a giant lantern at the back. The giant lantern is the ancestor of the Giant Lantern Festival, where lanterns up to 40 feet wide are lit in time with a band. In 1933 one barangay built its giant lantern in the shape of King Kong. Lubenas almost died out, with only about seven towns taking part by 2000, but it has since been revived.

Around the world

Filipino communities abroad keep the parol. In Vienna, a Philippine tree holding sixty lanterns is lit at the Christmas market, a project of the city and the Philippine embassy that began in 2006. In the Chicago area, a lantern-maker has run free workshops since 2005, with libraries, churches and Filipino-American groups hosting. San Francisco and Los Angeles hold a parol festival each December, and parols hang in Filipino-American homes and churches. In Canada, Filipinos bring parols to Christmas parties in their halls. The New Mexico farolito, a paper lantern used in Las Posadas, is said to come from the parol by way of the Manila galleons.

How Parol is kept

Lanterns go up in windows, on streets and in schools when the Christmas season starts, often in September. Children learn to make them in the weeks before Christmas. Villages, schools and neighbourhood groups run contests, and in Pampanga the older Lubenas processions still move through town with lanterns in a set order, ending with a giant one. The season closes with the Simbang Gabi dawn masses. Households take their lanterns down in January.

When and where

Parols belong to the Christmas season, which in the Philippines starts early, often in September, when lanterns go up with other decorations. The nine-day Simbang Gabi dawn masses in December are part of it. Lanterns stay until January; many households put them away after Epiphany, when the coming of the Magi is marked.

The parol is kept across the Philippines and strongest in Pampanga, where San Fernando is known as the home of the giant lanterns and Las Piñas also makes many. Filipino communities in the United States, Canada and Austria hang parols at Christmas, and Vienna's Christmas market has shown them since 2006.

What Parol means

The star shape recalls the star that guided the Magi, and the light inside stands for Christ. For Filipinos the parol has become the sign of Christmas itself, as familiar as a Christmas tree is elsewhere. Carrying one in the Simbang Gabi procession, or hanging one at the window, marks the season for the household and the street. Lanterns shaped as a cross, a fish, a lamb or a dove carry their own Christian meanings in the Lubenas.

Days Parol is marked

Questions people ask about Parol

See also

ChristmasA festival of Jesus's birth, kept on 25 December with gifts, lights and shared mealsHalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageValentine's DayA Christian feast day and cultural celebration of love kept on February 14 in many countries.HanukkahAn eight-day Jewish festival marking the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of a single day'

Good reading and sources

• Parol on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.