BAGUIO CITY — Pre-school kids aged 2-5 years old paraded along Session and Harrison Roads on Sunday for the annual Children’s Mardi Gras which is the kick-off event of the “Silahis ng Pasko” here.
“This is the day for the kids, our way of giving them the spirit of Christmas, which is of course for them,” said City Social Welfare and Development Officer (CSWDO) Betty Fangasan in her welcome address.
Children and their parents donned Christmas outfits such as Santa Claus, shepherds, angels, the wise men, Christmas balls, and cards, among others.
Fangasan said the event signals the start of the annual Christmas in Baguio celebration.
The festivity was a commemoration of sorts to the founder of the Silahis ng Pasko Narciso Padilla, a former city councilor and tourism officer, who started the program in 1973.
“This is an auspicious start and I guess my dad will be happy to see that we did nothing that is not to his liking. Or else, I would be having nightmares now,” said Fritz Gerald Padilla, the 50-year-old son who took over the running of the program after the elder Padilla passed away last March 3.
The program was started by the late Padilla while he was the city tourism officer and held as a partnership project with the National Correspondents Club of Baguio where he is founding president and the CSWDO.
“I am grateful to the CSWDO for the partnership my father forged with them in running the event and the various projects under the Silahis program,” Padilla said.
“There will be some changes in the near future, this is just our initial salvo and we were in the dark on how to run the event and the other projects under the Silahis program,” he added.
The new program chair was with his mother Consuelo, his wife Leah and four of his children, the two eldest practically grew up as Silahis babies.
His son Jeremy sang a doxology with her classmates from Phases Learning Center, a constant participant in the annual event.
“My dad has called it as mardi gras, since they are attired, though in Christmas, unlike those held in New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) who celebrate the day prior to the start of the Lenten season. This is the oldest celebration in the city, long before we had the Panagbenga or any festival. Even the name is so 70-ish,” Padilla said.
Padilla said critics bash the organizer on social media for coining words that are “out of date”, including the term mardi gras.
“But this was started in 1973 when silahis would mean a ray of light of providing hope to the less fortunate, meaning the indigent and the people with disabilities. That is why our next activities are gearing towards that,” Padilla said.
On December 7 and 8, the Lucky Christmas Families will be selected and will be given a two-day red carpet treatment – city tours, overnight stay in a local hotel, a mass at the Shrine of the Brown Madonna in Tuba, Benguet, a lunch and a Christmas package.
On December 15, it will be a day for persons with disabilities (PWDs) with a special Olympics at Session Road where they will have games with prizes, meals from groups who set up soup kitchens, grooming, and noche buena packages.
On December 22, the annual share a joy component will take Padilla and crew to the Baguio General Hospital for gift giving to sick children.
On December 25, there will be a search for the Christmas Baby who will receive a noche buena package and other gifts, while a similar search will be made on New Year’s Day.
On December 30, outstanding elderlies and athletes in the TALA and KISLAP awards will be honored.
A thanksgiving mass will also be held at the Shrine of Brown Madonna.
“My father’s legacies are the Silahis and the Shrine, which he built in a cave that was once barren, now it has become a sort of pilgrimage. The shrine is a work in progress the past 33 years and it will always be a part of the Silahis preparation,” Padilla said. **Pigeon M. Lobien/ PNA
