By The SUN
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| A simple parol design by Sowers won the top prize in St Joseph's contest |
Filipinos in Hong Kong again showed their creativity
this Christmas season by making parol out of recycled materials and entering
them in several contests that revealed how waste can be turned into works of
art.
At the St. Joseph’s Church
in Central, a parol-making contest that started on Dec. 2 attracted 53 entries made
of discarded materials such as plastic spoons, drinking straws, shopping bags,
styrofoam plates, and so on.
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Arcy Barbado, contest
organizer and coordinator of the Filipino Catholic Group at the church, said all
the parols will be hung on the walls of the church until the Three Kings
celebration on January 6.
During masses on
Christmas Day, the winning entries were announced by organizers, led by entry
no. 29 from the Sowers Community as champion. It was made out of green, red and
yellow sheets of paper, cut and layered to make a wreath with a hand-drawn nativity
scene in the middle.
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| Members of the Sowers Community group gather in front of their winning entry |
The four other winners, in the absence of immediate identification of their owners, were announced only as entries no. 28A, 17, 2, and 23. Special prizes were also given to 20 entries: 45, 24A, 1, 30, 16, 7A, 18, 5, 10, 13, 40A, 27, 20A, 21, 27A, 25, 42, 15, 27A, 41.
The identities of the winning contestants will be announced by Jan. 6 after the groups that submitted them have come forward, said Barbado, who has been organizing the contest for several years now.
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The selection of winners
was done on Dec 19 by the six judges: Fr. Paul Chen, Fr Joseph Tan, both SVD,
and four church community coordinators: Delia Sulit of Prayer Group, Emma dela
Torre of Sowers Community, Jasby Pardilla of Apostleship of Prayer, and Mildred
Ganaden of Legion of Mary.
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| Some of the entries in the St Joseph's parol-making contest |
Meanwhile, the Filipino
Friends in Hong Kong also organized a parol-making contest for the 19th
straight year, with the final judging being held on Dec 26 beside City Hall in
Central.
Lead organizer Nick Ivan
said the group’s Christmas celebration was also a fund-raising event for the
victims of typhoon Odette in the Philippines.
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Of the 11 entries in this
year’s contest, the one submitted by the Association of Concerned Filipinos in
Hong Kong (Acfil) was declared as Champion. In second place was the entry of
the Mission Movers Hong Kong, while the one from Filipino Migrant Workers Union
GPO was third.
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Consolation prizes were
awarded to the entries from Huanduan Organization and the Filipino Migrants
Association.
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| The Holy Family in Acfil's winning entry is shrouded in disposable face masks |
Acfil’s winning entry
showed the Nativity scene amid the sun’s rays depicted with rolls of rolled-up
aluminum foil. Inside a realistic-looking miniature manger the Holy Family was
skillfully shrouded in what turned out to be disposable masks.
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The other entries came
from Filipino Lesbians Organizations HK, Migrante Pier, FMWU City Hall, FMWU
Chater Road, Cuyapo OFW Association, and the Villanueva family.
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| The other winners in FilFriend's contest |
Filipino Friends, which
was formed in 1999, had as its theme for this year’s celebration the role of
the parol or Christmas lantern in bringing fresh hopes to migrant workers and
their families amid the pandemic. (“Parol sa Panahon ng Pandemya, Liwanag ng Pagkakaisa
Upang Itaguyod ang Bagong Pag-asa ng Migrante at Ating Pamilya).
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