October 25, 2012

• The FREEMAN's Light A Star year 5 entries - elementary category

  Culture

  The Belen is a depiction of the Holy Family at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

  It is a tradition in the Philippines for every home to have a Belen during Christmas. It represents family and reflects the importance that Filipinos put on family.

  Last Monday and Tuesday, kids, both high school and elementary school, came to The FREEMAN office for the yearly Light A Star contest. This year, instead of the usual parol (Christmas lantern), our General Manager, Mr. Bhoy Mendoza, suggested that we do an on-the-spot Belen making contest, basically to reflect the value that the company places on the family.

  It was an exciting two days.

  

  The first day there were the elementary school kids aged 7-12 seriously creating their interpretation of the Belen from raw materials, which, for this category was coconut palm - any parts of the coconut palm, from the leaves to the branches, and even seedlings.

  There were 18 entries for the elementary category, representing 16 different schools from Cebu City and neighboring cities and municipalities.

  The elementary schools who came included Pusok Elementary School, Tipolo Elementary School, Mactan Elementary School, Zapatera Elementary School, Cabancalan II Elementary School, Agus Elementary School, Bankal Elementary School, Mandaue City Central Integrated SPED School (school for the disabled, their representatives were deaf), Don Vicente Rama Memorial Elementary School, Vicenta Manreal Elementary School, Banilad Elementary School, Subangdako Elementary School, San Nicolas Elementary School, Pilipog Elementary School, Guadalupe Elementary School, and Argao Central Elementary School.

  

  For the high school category, 15 schools were represented, I'll talk about the high school category on my next post.

  

  There were some entries that were so creative, one could say, wow, could you actually do that?

  

  Take the coconut husk, for example. One team used the inside of the husk to make it into the characters, although painting it white made it, well, not so good to look at. Takes the drama out of the material, still, the over all effect was awesome.

  

  One entry I really liked because the whole theme represented everything that is Cebu, from the templete that is being constructed for San Pedro Calungsod de Cebu, to guitars, of which those made in Cebu are said to be of great quality.

  

  Another entry I liked was the one made of coconut palm, although the characters were not complete because the small kids lacked the time to finish everything. Still it was amazing how they were able to turn the ginit into the characters.

  

  Another entry had a water feature, and you could just imagine the learning that the kids gained from this experience.

  

  Considering that they were under time pressure, I'd say that it was quite a feat for these kids. 

  

  Next would be the voting portion where readers of The FREEMAN get to vote for the Belen of their choice. Voting would start today, October 26, until November 25.

  

  The Belen with the most number of votes would get an extra price plus a certain percentage in the total score.

  

  At stake is 10,000 pesos for the winning piece plus other prizes. The votes will also be raffled, and at stake would be overnight stays or treats from Cebu's great hotels and resorts including Mactan's Shangri La Resort and Spa and Plantation Bay.

  Photos courtesy of The FREEMAN.

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