P-NOY makes an apperance. Photo by ALI VICOY.

MANILA, Philippines — Every parade is mortally afraid of one and only one thing: rain.

The early afternoon sky over UP Diliman last Friday threatened Lantern Parade 2010 with precisely that. If you’re the superstitious type, you might have taken it as a bad omen. And you might’ve taken it as a cue to cancel when it actually started pouring just before the parade was set to begin. (Ever wondered why they call it a rain check?)

It seemed, however, that it takes more than a few buckets of water to dampen the holiday spirit at the University of the Philippines. It can be recalled that the Parade was cancelled back in 2007 due to a supposed bomb threat, but the College of Fine Arts got out and strutted their stuff anyway. The rain must’ve known this, because it stopped promptly, making way for what was to be a literally colorful evening.

“Pasko 2010: Kapayapaan, Kaunlaran, Kasaganaan” featured another assortment of floats and lanterns by more than 50 departments, colleges and organizations with the now-traditional use of recycled material. Every group collaborated to make their own, blending artistry and creativity with social commentary.

There was novelty in many forms: the Center for Women’s Studies of UP Diliman, represented by women in pink, handed out condoms to the crowd to signify their support for Reproductive Health. They were followed by the Filipino Freethinkers, who dressed up as a multiplicity of Green Lanterns — it was the Lantern Parade, after all.

Many old, anticipated favorites were also present: the band of musicians that customarily leads the procession around the Academic Oval; people representing various branches of the UP administration and various factors that make university life possible such as the Office of Admissions, UP Press, et cetera; and the UP Pep Squad, this year’s UAAAAP Cheerdance Champions, who performed a challenging routine complete with gymnastics and three-layer pyramids on the hard asphalt.

Architecture and activism
But it was the College of Architecture who reaped the wows when they came, with each person dressed as a famous architectural landmark.

The crowd shouted out the names of each: the Statue of Liberty, the Bird’s Nest, the Taj Mahal, the Sphinx, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House, Big Ben, the Lotus, the Petronas Towers.

Then, those closer to home: Jose Rizal in Luneta, the huge Iglesia ni Cristo building along Commonwealth Avenue, our very own Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, the flying-saucer-shaped Catholic church located inside the campus.

There were many others we didn’t recognize, and old and young alike laughed when the ensuing silence made them realize they probably weren’t as smart as they thought themselves to be.

All-out activism was there too, with Stand UP leading the chant against the P1.39 billion budget cut that looms over the university.

The College of Mass Communication prepared a gigantic iPod which served as a screen on which they flashed videos of the pertinent issues of the past year, including the yet unresolved Maguindanao massacre.

The College of Law was a show of solidarity as they carried torches, promising that, as men of the law, they would continue to “light the way” even if it meant getting sanctioned by the Supreme Court for doing so.

And still there were characters we could not do without: the College of Human Kinetics dressed (or undressed) one of their students as the Oblation Statue, complete with a leaf over his pee-pee. They had a very convincing Manny Pacquiao too, with a painted-on beard and a Jinkee tattoo on his chest (which the real Manny Pacquiao does not have).

The UP Extension Program in Pampanga was unmistakable, with their obligatory oversized Pampanga-made lantern.

Volcanoes and Ironman and big fish
But bigger things — literally — were yet to come. The College of Science wheeled out a huge, gurgling volcano (which did not erupt) and two test tubes pouring some mysterious chemicals into an Erlenmeyer flask just as big as the preceding volcano.

The College of Engineering, which won this year’s lantern competition yet again, left everyone in awe with their Ironman-like giant robot, controlled by a costumed man pulling at levers on the ground, and a cyclist high up in the air pedaling and mobilizing a gargantuan Troy-reminiscent horse.

A long lag followed before the College of Fine Arts, the true big fish, came out, with the theme of marine life. They had surfers, canoes, volleyball nets, refreshments, lifeguards, fishermen, a scuba diver with an oversized tank, dragonboat rowers, and even skinny young women wearing painted bodies of obese women in bikinis. Then there were all kinds of sea creatures, sharks and octopi and sting rays and a disco-going blowfish, cavalries of seahorses and armies of ninja turtles (A parade marshall near me cried angrily, “Bakit ang bagal ng pagong?”). There were also the more exotic anglerfish, a few mermaids, the majestic presence of Poseidon (King Triton?), and the occasional water Pokemon.

Then a short program followed where several of the constituents performed, danced, sang, chanted — capped off by another stunning fireworks display courtesy of Beta Epsilon Fraternity. And so the celebration ended, a celebration for many reasons, Christmas, yes, and other things too, particularly for the students, that Christmas break had come. Lantern Parade, one of the best nights in UP, was over.

Not a single drop of rain had fallen.