SEOUL, South Korea got an early taste of the Filipino Christmas spirit with an assembly of unique lanterns or parol displayed at the ongoing Seoul Lantern Festival 2017.
In a news statement, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said it sponsored the exhibit of colorful Philippine capiz lanterns along the Cheonggyecheon Stream to help promote international tourism exchange, an aim of the annual lantern festival, which began in 2009.
“We are proud to showcase our elegant capiz lanterns in downtown Seoul for all the world to see the parol that symbolizes the birth of Christ Jesus, and who stars in the longest celebration of Christmas in the world, which is in the Philippines,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said.
The DOT said while this year’s lantern festival provides a glimpse of the 2018 Winter Olympics which South Korea is hosting in PyeongChang, the Philippines’s display at the Lanterns of the World exhibit has caught the interest and admiration of thousands of visitors at the event, which began on November 3.
Like the star of Bethlehem that guided the three kings to baby Jesus’s location in the manger, the Philippine parol also serves as a beacon to the Philippines for visitors. South Korea, Teo noted, continues to be the Philippines’s top source market for tourists.
From January to August, tourists from South Korea grew by 9.6 percent to 1.07 million. For the full year 2016, visitor arrivals from South Korea reached 1.48 million, up 10 percent from the previous year.
The Seoul Light Lantern Festival, held every first Friday until the third Sunday of November along the 1.2-kilometer from Cheonggye Plaza in Seoul to Supyo Bridge, portrays an overall sports theme to promote the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018.
At the “Seoul, Korea and the World” section, the DOT said glittering lanterns representing major South Korean companies and organizations, as well as countries across the globe, including the Philippines, were on display.
The DOT’s Philippine capiz lanterns exhibit between the Gwanggyo and Jangtong bridges, dramatize the joyous Christmas traditions in the Philippines, said Director Ma. Corazon Jorda-Apo of Philippines DOT (PDOT)-Korea office.
Along with a wall of Philippine lanterns, a running electronic board displayed the ongoing DOT campaign of “Bring Home a Friend,” as well as the country slogan, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” in English and Korean.
Festival visitors who drop by the PDOT booth at the Gwanggyo Gallery could win two free round-trip tickets to Manila courtesy of Philippine Airlines just by leaving a comment and a photo taken with Philippine capiz lanterns on the PDOT Facebook page.
The DOT also gave away travel guidebooks of Cebu, Boracay, Palawan and other major travel destinations of the Philippines, to the visitors for free.
Image credits: Photo courtesy D.O.T