By Niño Luces
CASTILLA, Sorsogon –Locally harvested root crops, such as gabi, ginger, cassava and camote, among others, are being used to make Christmas lanterns or ‘parols’ in then this town’s ‘Unod (root crop) Festival lantern-making competition.
ROOT CROP PAROL: This resident of Calstilla town arrange the lighting of 'Eco-Parol' made of Pili shells, peanut and corn while being displayed at the hallway of Castilla Municipal Hall on Tuesday afternoon. (Niño N. Luces/ MANILA BULLETIN)
Mayor Joan Lorenzana Aquende told the Manila Bulletin that the event is aims to promote their local product this Christmas season.
"This is actually part of our Unod Festival celebration. Our festival initially was scheduled in October but it was moved to December. When it was moved December, we changed some of the activities and then we want it still as much as possible connected with "unod" or root crops,” Mayor Aquende said.
She added that more than 75 percent of the total land of Castilla is agricultural, and encouraged local folk to celebrate abundant harvests by using harvested crops in designing their Christmas lantern.