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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All photos are original and taken with

Lumix GX85 and Sigma 50 mm

 

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://watersnake101.steemblogs.club/2019/12/22/the-invasion-of-crazies-stars-and-bunnies-beautiful-sunday/

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