My Share for #BeautifulSunday initiated by @ace108
It is the holiday season and vacation starts now. As Christmas is almost here let me share with you a part of the celebration near our area here in the Philippines. Today I will take you with me to see a parade that is held yearly in the Province of Cavite. In this time of the year an invasion occurs and in which they take over the busy streets of Cavite. Huge paper giants, stars come down from the skies and cute bunnies march down the main road. Yes, you read that right, "cute bunnies". So talk a walk with me today and experience the parade.
The Invasion of Crazies, Stars and Bunnies
Everyone patiently waits as the paper giants come out of the local gymnasium. The gymnasium is where they are all kept until today when they are all unleashed to gather at the starting point of the parade.
The place is crowded already and the parade hasn't started yet. Similar to a fantasy world where villagers gather near the mouth of a cave waiting for the giants to appear.
One by one they slowly come out and cheers from the children are heard as they see their favorite characters. These giant paper figures are called Bangenge which when translated in english means crazy, insane or abnormal. As our local tradition goes during the Christmas season, these figures come out caroling at night along with children. Children sing Christmas carols going house to house armed with homemade drums. As the children sing and beat their drums the Bangenge dances along with the beat of their drums.
After three to four songs they will wait in front of your gate until you give them a couple of coins. Let's say it somehow like trick or treating but with coins instead. The majority of the children here in our country have experienced Christmas caroling at least once and I had my share of this experience when I was a child.
As far as I can remember the Bangenge that we used was an old cardboard box. We used a discarded ice cream bucket as a head and formed it to look like a robot. We took turns wearing the box and danced like crazy while wearing it. Today the Bangenge takes a lot of effort to craft, choosing popular characters for a chance to be crowd favorites.
There is something for everyone and if you are a Star Wars fan I'm pretty sure you know this guy. It would take a lot of Force to carry this alone.
The parade hasn't started yet and these guys are just on their way to the starting point in the main road of the city.
Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't looks so baby now. It would look great if they used branches and vines in crafting the character but I guess there is a rule that only paper material can be used.
I followed the marching giants and finally reached the starting point. As expected the place was very crowded already.
People patiently waited for the parade to begin and you could see people from all ages excited for the event.
Vendors grabs the opportunity of this event as there are a lot of kids outside the streets.
As more people flock to the site, the starting line of the parade gets longer and longer. The line for the Bangenge is segregated and goes around the block as there are a lot of participants this year.
With a marching band leading the way the parade is about to start.
As the music from the band played, traffic is routed and the march finally begins. The march would take around 2 km which will end at the local park of the city.
It was like there was a fiesta going on as the parade has almost everything that you could expect. Every marching band here has majorettes leading the way, waving banners or whirling a baton.
Here comes the angels who has flown down to join the parade.
The nativity scene seems to be a new addition to the parade. In the previous years, I never recall it being a part of the march but it is a good addition promoting the Christmas spirit.
Everyone involved in the parade are students from schools all over the city and each group chooses a theme for their group.
A rowdy group of students were playfully dancing their Bangenge. It it is pretty hard not to get some tears on their character as some of the kids get carried away from having too much fun.
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Well you know how the song goes.
The majority of the Bangenge are based on popular cartoon characters or movies. As I have seen in the previous years there is no character that the students could not make, from giant robots to political character.
Now enters the Kuneho which is our local name for the rabbit. These are made by the younger students and is often pulled or pushed on cart.
These are grade 2 students proudly pushing their cute creation and of course, their moms are always there for support.
I guess one of the requirements is to wear bunny ears.
This looks like a bunny version of Elsa from the Disney animated movie Frozen.
This is a fun and colorful parade and kids are having fun in this event. Back in my days we didn't have any events like these, but I would be hesitant about wearing those ears though.
The bunnies are a great way to express the creativity of the younger students. Though I do not know exactly how the bunny parade started or who thought about it. Anyway, it is an enjoyable part of the roster.
Stars have come down from the sky in the form of lanterns carried by children. These are Christmas lanterns which we locally call "Parol". It is a popular symbolism of Christmas in our country. Back then almost all houses had one hanging from their houses. Today I don't see much of them from houses except for colorful Christmas lights.
The colors are assigned to different schools and it is beautiful seeing all these stars marching along the streets. Each star carried by a child is like a hope for the future of our nation.
This ends the first part of the parade and I hope you join me again for the next part of this event. See more of the fantastic creations of these students as they continue with their conquest to conquer the fascination of the city. Hope you enjoyed this part and I'd love to see you again. Do leave some comments and let me know what is your favorite.
Until then hold on tight as Christmas is almost here. Don't blink as you just might miss it.
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It's interesting how different cultures celebrate different seasons. Thanks for sharing this. I feel enlightened.
Glad to have shared our culture during this season. Thank you very much.
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I think Yoda need less force than the panda.
Yep you are definitely right with that. Some are really heavy and required the power of the a Sith lord lol.
Although, Yoda could float himself. :-)
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What a grand procession for children to participate in before Christmas bringing everyone together.
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It was fun to watch but took a while before it started and everyone was very impatient. Thanks for the tip!
When the whole village comes to town, it will be a slow start. Have a wonderful day.
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Looks like a great time was had here by all my friend.
Very innovative to get the groups of students to select their own themes.
A great post once again!
Blessings!
Oh the students are very talented. Year after year these kids pulls it off. Cartoon characters adds fun to it. Good thing there were no political figures this year lol.
Great to hear and I think politicians are not as popular anymore my friend Lol
Blessings!
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That looks like a lot of fun, and the children are precious! 💛
Love this!!!
Yeah that sounds good indeed. Just came out from the top of my head lol. So true as the children is what makes our future. Happy Holidays!
Quite a joyful and memorable event!
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It's pretty amazing how they craft the paper into the characters, and some of them are really well done. It's kind of strange the characters of the nativity are just now starting to be part of the celebration. Are the carols they sing strictly Filipino or are they the standard English carols?
Great post!
@free-reign Before it was just the bunnies and characters during the parade. They added a lot so the parade was soooo long. As for the carols there are two types of carolers. One is composed of kids with the home made drums and plastic containers. They usually sing local Filipino songs and believe it or not they even made a song out of the local spit pig roaster called lechon. Kinda silly but hilarious and some kids could be mean. If you didn't give them very little coins they would sing, "Thank you, thank you, you're a cheapskate thank you. Then they would run away. Well kids are kids right? As for the other type of carolers are the more serious older kids. Singing solemnly with musical instruments with English carols.
This sure is a lot of fun ..
Nice to see everyone participating for this event
We I was a kid didn't get a chance to experience this as they didn't have this parade. I am still glad to experience it by documenting.
What an interesting parade and so many paper mache characters! It was a wonderful parade of characters and the holy family.
A wonderful way to spend the day!
Merry Christmas!
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Hello Denise! We spent Christmas on an island and just got back yesterday. Mobile signal there was very poor. I'm sure you had an amazing Christmas my friend. Thanks for the tip my friend!
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Great photos and wonderful colors @watersnake101 Merry Christmas. 🙏
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Merry Christmas buddy. Glad you loved the colors of our holiday.
That looks like a fun tradition. So many people involved, especially children.
Oh it was fun and I am glad they thought about this tradition. I'm not completely sure but I think this has been on going for almost two decades now.
I love it! It looks like a great deal of fun was had by a lot of people!
I would have laughed hard if Thanos has been dressed as a bunny. :)
Ha haha and Thanos doing the snap so everyone will have bunny ears. Happy Holidays my friend.
Nice! May ganito pala sa Cavite. 😊😊 Merry Christmas po 🎄🎁🎉✨
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Hope you had an amazing Christmas! Yea it is held every year and madaming dumadayo just to see it.
Cool! Makadayo nga sa susunod 😂😂 joke lang po. Thanks, it was pretty good. Happy new year! 🎉🎊🎆🎇
Wow, this is facinating @watersnakd101. Amazing to see so many familiar cartoon characters that are popular worldwide. What a fun celebration for all ages :)
I'm glad you found our culture fascinating. Each school section chose their own character but some made the same cartoon character. There was this one character called Doraemon. I like saw three of them which has never happened before.
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Thank you very much!
Great post, @watersnake201! I love all the pictures of the characters, and of course all the smiling faces of the children. Excellent job on the photography! Wow!
Thank you so much your words made me smile. I couldn't fit all of it on one post and I'll be sharing the other half of it this weekend.
Great! I look forward to it.
Beautiful parade. Is each group who wants a character represented responsible for making the Bangenge? They do a good job of representing the characters. I see some of the groups have their own uniforms and look coordinated.
Thanks for sharing this post. Looks like everyone was having fun. It's so nice to see so many young children participating. Start them early and teach them traditions so they will carry on.
True the children are the next generation to carry on this tradition. The groups are divided by schools and school year. High school students are responsible for the Bangenge with no uniforms lol. The younger kids are those more coordinated with costumes and all.
This is such a fun holiday tradition and and as always your description and fantastic photos make me feel like I was there! Happy Holidays to you!
Thank you very much my friend and I wish you all the blessings thing coming New Year!