By Fung Yu
Contributor

Author’s Note: This article uses virtual reality technology to provide an immersive experience. Adobe Flash 10 or higher is required to view the 360-degree VRs. Average VR size is 2.5Mb each.

BEING a predominantly Catholic nation, the Philippines is host to ‘endless’ religious festivals and celebrations. Next to Christmas, the Lenten season, which falls either on March or April, is celebrated throughout the country.

Conventionally, this is a 40-day affair representing the time, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.

The traditional purpose of Lent is to prepare a believer–through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial–for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Saturday. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter,” a celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death.

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SEVENTY five skydivers will jump. Twenty five colorful balloons will fly. And balloons shaped like elephants, tigers, sugarhouse, mug cup, para-gliders, kites, helicopters, and planes will take to the sky during Clark Freeport’s 14th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (PIHABF).

Apart from the Philippines, other countries including Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, France, United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Netherlands and Malaysia will participate in this year’s event.

“Our objective is to open the eyes of everybody of what aviation is about. It gives the country an opportunity for aviation tourism. This is an opportunity for us to show that we have a friendly sky. We welcome them in flying in our airspace and see the beautiful country side,” says Joy Roa, events director of PIHABF.

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NOTHING beats a walk along Ongpin St. especially during the Chinese New Year. So to complete our experience of Chinatown, INQUIRER.net multimedia reporters Lawrence Casiraya, Marjorie Gorospe and I strolled along the street.

As we walked towards the action, we saw one performer spitting fire just like a dragon.

Everywhere, I saw red. According to Chinese tradition, red drives evil away. So we continued our stroll until the rhythmic beating of the drums and dancing lion caught my attention. At first, I thought adults were parading this creature, which can be mesmerizing. But kids were actually underneath it.

Later, I was told that they were called “The Kids Lion Dance.” Their youngest member is 8 years old. According to lion dancer Johnny Najera, 14, their oldest member is 30 years old.

In our conversation, Najera admits carrying the huge lion’s head while dancing is not easy. “Medyo mabigat po [It’s quite heavy],” he says.

Every night, they practice. These kids only perform the lion dance during Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. They often earn P200 to P500 a day dancing.

Najera says they earn some money doing the lion dance. Jessie Patrocinio, 12 years old, however, says he beats the drums to take away the bad luck.

WHO says everyone wants to be fair-skinned?

Every second week of January, Kalibonhons and tourists paint their skins black to become part of the Ati-Atihan Festival. In our recent visit, my colleague Alex Villafania and I had the chance of getting our skin blackened and dress up like an “Ati.”

Dressing up like an Ati was not easy. As early as 4 o’clock in the morning, we braved the cold weather in Kalibo and went to Lucas, also known as “Tatay Oca” Cristobal’s house. Tatay Oca, the leader of the Morongga tribe, welcomed us in their home, where members of the tribe, mostly teenagers, were already eating breakfast.

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

THE streets of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas at the Makati Central Business District (CBD) burst into a sea of colors during the 2009 Caracol festival on January 17.

Hundreds of students from Makati City schools and university clad in nature-inspired costumes joined the Caracol parade, which started at about 4 p.m. and the competition at around 5:30 p.m.

Like in 2005, the students convened at the Gabriela Silang carpark on Ayala and Makati avenues at 3 p.m.

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