Relief goods temporarily become floats at UP Lantern Parade

A golden lady raising a torch in her right hand emerges from a wave made of water bottles and clothes. Canned goods, powdered milk, and instant noodles surrounded the base where she stood, while four television sets played news stories about Typhoon Yolanda.

This year's Lantern Parade at the University of the Philippines was a more toned-down affair due to the typhoon that devastated the central Philippines last month. To drive home the university's intent to highlight the calamity, this year's guidelines also required the floats to be at least 30 percent composed of relief materials—hence the golden lady, created by last year's champion, the College of Mass Communication.

This rule resulted in a display of creativity amid restriction.

The College of Home Economics' tree lantern, for instance, used rubber slippers for the trunk, while the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development's version had green umbrellas forming the crown. The UP Integrated School's float used pencils and other school supplies. And the College of Engineering put its skills to good use with an automated pop-up diorama showing a post-Yolanda relief drive and reconstruction scene.

"[The mood is] celebratory because it's Christmas, pero also deferent to what happened in the Visayan region because of Yolanda, so relief materials ang naging parang mandate for this year's lantern parade," CMC college secretary Randy Solis told GMA News Online.

See also: In solidarity with Yolanda survivors, UP Lantern Parade tones down festivities

For old times' sake, the Colleges of Science, Social Science and Philosophy, and Arts and Letters had a joint float to celebrate their establishment as a single unit, the College of Arts and Science, 30 years ago. Their visual depiction of the ant and the grasshopper's classic tale of conflict was named the most creative lantern of the year.

Hall of Famer College of Fine Arts (CFA) did not hold back for the parade. Their floats were based on their own theme, "Pamana ng Lahi: Likha hango sa tradisyunal na sining Pilipino."

"Gusto natin itong ipakita: mayaman ang kultura ng Pilipinas, at napakaganda itong ipagdiwang," CFA dean Leonardo C. Rosete told GMA News Online.

For their part in this year's awareness effort on Yolanda, the college requested its students to minimize the use of non-biodegradeable materials.

After the parade, the floats were dismantled and the goods used in them repacked to be sent to Yolanda-hit areas. — BM/VC, GMA News