Representing the Philippines in the International Christmas Tree Vilnius
December 6, 2024 – International House of Vilnius, “a unique one-stop-shop style service center in Vilnius” organized a big Christmas event to highlight the foreigners living in Lithuania, particularly in Vilnius. There are more than 200,000 foreigners living in Lithuania, and more than 73,000 live in Vilnius.
The International Christmas Tree represents the unity and the cultural diversity of the city of Vilnius, to showcase the Christmas and winter traditions and symbols of many foreign countries. There were 19 countries who participated in this event Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Philippines, Georgia, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom and Ukraine. Each symbol includes a QR Code, in which one can read about the Christmas symbol, and why is it special to that particular country.
I was invited by the International House of Vilnius to represent the Philippines in this event. The Filipino parol or the star-shaped Christmas lantern was the Filipino Christmas symbol that I submitted for the event. I was requested also to give a short talk about the parol and why is it an important Christmas symbol of the Philippine culture. But during this event, I invited some members of the Filipino community in Vilnius, and we serenaded the crowd singing a few lines of our famous Christmas carols – “Kumukutikutitap” and “Pasko Na Naman“, accompanied by a tambourine, while holding the Philippine flag.
In my opinion, we represented the Philippines well during the ceremony, and we had the honor and pride while doing so.
The Filipino parol was displayed in the PC Europa Mall square in Vilnius from December 6, 2024 until January 6, 2025.
Event details in this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/594017886416341/
Videos available in YouTube:
Filipino Christmas Carols (short video)
