The "United Asian" Christmas Party: The UP Asian Center Christmas Party 2014

- December 15, 2014, Monday.

- Before anything else, this post is a semi-personal (??) post, but a very cultural one. It might not be an adventure post like what I usually write, but the photos will definitely be a feast for the eyes, just like how Christmas is supposed to be.

- Today, the UP Asian Center held its Christmas party right before the UP Diliman's annual lantern parade, as always. I was not able to join in this year's parade because of some personal matters, but at least I had the time to attend the Christmas party.

A photo with the sarimanok lantern of the Asian Center.

With my classmate Denzel. We're (so far) the only South-Asian majors in the Asian Center, 

- The Asian Center encourages its students to wear traditional Asian costumes during the party and the lantern parade. In line with this, there is of course the yearly Asian-costume contest for the students who have put on their costumes. However, the party organizers have once again banned me from joining the costume contest because of my reputation as a traditional-attire collector, and as a regular wearer of (casual) traditional clothes (I was assigned as one of the judges for the contest though.) Despite these circumstances (being banned and not being able to attend the parade,) I still chose an elaborate costume for this year's party, so I can outdo what I wore in last year's party and lantern parade (click here to see;) I decided to wear my Korean samulnori/pungmulnori costume. The samulnori or pungmulnori is a kind of Korean folk music using an ensemble of traditional percussion instruments, accompanied by chanting/singing, and dancing. This form of performing art originated from the rural farming communities of Korea, and is done during harvest, and other local celebrations. Those who participate in the pungmulnori ensemble dress in a particular costume with plain solid colors, normally blue, red, and yellow, symbolizing heaven, earth, and humanity respectively. Perhaps, the most interesting and notable feature of the samulnori/pungmulnori costume is the "sangmo," or the hat with the wire and ribbon. Dancers would skillfully shift their center of gravity, and use other body movements to make the wire/ribbon of the sangmo spin. I am not a professional sangmo dancer, and I have not attended any workshops, so trying my best to make the ribbon spin was one of the things I attempted to achieve in my vacant times during the party. (Last night, I was able to find one website that had a written tutorial, without visuals, about making the sangmo's ribbon spin. It was hard since I had to visualize the written instruction, but I think I nailed it for a beginner. I just can't make it spin quickly like the pros do.)  

One of my early attempts to make it spin.

- I felt that this year's Christmas party was a bit quieter than last year's. Oh, I was also assigned to be the emcee the last minute, so I tried hard to make the party alive. We had a few games after having some good food, but the highlight of course, was when the other students changed into their costumes. Compared to last year, this year's costumes had more variety.

Pinoy Henyo.

Trip to Jerusalem.

Another attempt in making it spin.

With my classmates and friends.

The United Asian Alliance: India, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Korea, Japan, Japan, and Undecided (Nica was undecided about what her outfit represented.)

Friends I haven't seen in a long time.

The participants of the costume contest. The kimono-wearing Japanese major (second from right) won. She had a kimono with an obi sash, a matching Japanese bag/purse, and Japanese sandals.

- Just before the party ended, I was able to encounter the igal-igal dancers who would be performing during the judging of the lantern in the parade. Since the heavy rain came, I was able to talk to them and have a short crash course on the igal-igal dance while waiting for the rain to go away, and while the staff was still preparing the lantern for the parade. I was able to catch up a bit during the crash course, since I attended a pangalay workshop previously (click here,) The pangalay is a dance from the Philippines' Tausug group, while the igal-igal hails from the Sama-Bajau group that resides in the Malayo-Philippine group of islands. The pangalay and igal-igal are closely-related dances, are distant "cousins" of the court dances of other Southeast-Asian countries, with all of these originating from classical Indian court dances. 

With one of the small Asian Center lanterns.

With the igal-igal dancers.

South Asian majors with the igal-igal dancers.

- The rain stopped shortly after my crash course, and as the lantern rolled away to the holding area of the parade together with the nicely-costumed staff, professors, and students, I went home. Right now, I am still dizzy from all the sangmo workout I did during the day. I was able to make it spin, so I'm happy.