Rain fails to dampen San Francisco Parol festival and parade

WATCH: 2016 San Francisco Parol Lantern Festival and Parade. INQUIRER/Vic Bareng

SAN FRANCISCO – Despite the rain, much-needed in drought-stricken California, nearly a thousand cheerful Filipino Americans thronged to the community’s now traditional Parol Lantern Festival and Parade on Dec. 10.

Festival organizer MC Canlas explained that the rainy weather confined most of the activities indoors at St. Patrick Church’s community hall in the heart of commercial downtown.

Filipino Christmas goodies were laid out for the taking inside St. Patrick Church’s social hall Dec. 10, before the parol parade. INQUIRER

The parade route has been shortened to just a few hundred yards around the church. But the cheer was infectious as downtown’s Saturday crowds milled around the route to applaud the colorful Filipino Christmas lanterns carried by members and supporters of community organizations.

Colorful parols were displayed indoor before being paraded around St. Patrick Church. INQUIRER

Festivities began at 3 p.m. in the church social hall where the lanterns were displayed and Filipino snacks were laid out for the taking – champurado, various kinds of sticky rice bibingka, puto bumbong, traditional Christmas rice cake, to be washed down with hot chocolate.

The church hall rang with singing, chatter and dancing as groups of Filipino American youngsters reveled in their culture’s Christmas spirit, the goal of this traditional celebration, said Canlas. This year’s theme was “Bring culture to light.”