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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, November 16, 2001

Pasko kicks off Filipino holiday season

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Filipino holiday celebration of Pasko at the Honolulu Academy of Arts will include a demonstration on how to make parol, traditional Christmas lanterns. Often made of bamboo sticks and paper or cellophane, they symbolize the star said to have guided the three wise men from the East in search of the newborn Jesus.

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Pasko

1 to 5 p.m., Sunday

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Free

532-8700

For an ethnic community especially hard hit by economic hardships since Sept. 11, beginning a Christmas celebration four days before Thanksgiving is none too soon.

Filipinos in Hawai'i, many of whom have been laid off from tourism jobs, are hoping to find a source of joy in Pasko, the 13th annual Filipino festival on Sunday at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. "In the Philippines, the tradition is celebrated 16 days before Christmas," said Randolph Albano, pastor of downtown's St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which has a large Filipino congregation and offers services in Ilocano on Sundays. "It's part of the preparation."

The Pasko festival typically comes closer to Thanksgiving in Hawai'i.

Musicians such as Danongan "Danny" Kalanduyan will be back this year, drumming brass gongs and playing his native music befitting this year's theme of "Celebrating Southern Philippines."

"I'm happy not only to have the opportunity to promote the tradition but to be with the people who enjoy the music," said Kalanduyan, a San Francisco musician who is returning to Hawai'i's festival after performing the Maguindanao-style music at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington.

The free event will include food, folk dancers and demonstrations on making the Christmas lanterns known as parol. At a time like this, Albano said, the event will provide reason for cheer as well as prayer.

Filipinos, one of Hawai'i's fastest-growing ethnic groups, make up more than 14 percent of the state's population.

"It may be that the effect of Sept. 11 has limited the things we buy for Christmas gifts," Albano said. "But the spirit in this, the effect of this religiously, is that we will come together and pray for blessings."