Seoul, 04 November 2013 – One can almost hear festive Tagalog jingles while viewing a Filipino Christmas tree, which is made of capiz (windowpane oyster) shell lanterns from the central Luzon province of Pampanga, installed in the heart of Seoul’s financial district for the annual Seoul Lantern Festival.

“We are happy one of the countries given the opportunity to present a Philippine-crafted indigenous lantern in this event,” said Philippine Tourism Director for Korea Maricon Basco-Ebron at the opening of the event on 1 November 2013. “We hope this display can serve as a teaser for Koreans so that we can entice them to come to the Philippines to experience the world’s longest and arguably most festive Christmas season.” The festival, one of the Korean capital's flagship events, is a visual feast of hundreds of thousands of lanterns hand-crafted by local and international artisans. Apart from Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan are the only other government entities participating in the event, which this year highlights Seoul's 200 year-old history and many traditions. The Christmas tree, the fourth straight entry of the Philippines since the festival started in 2009, stands at 6.3 meters and is made up of 200 lanterns formed into a tinkling, obelisk-shaped kaleidoscope of lights. Like the other displays, the parol (lantern) tree may be viewed with the lights turned on at 5pm to 11pm from the 1st until the 17th of November. The Philippine display is located between Jangtong Bridge and Samil Bridge along the Cheonggyecheon Stream in Seoul’s Jongro financial district. On the opening day, First Secretary and Consul Deric Atienza observed large crowds of Koreans, tourists and foreign residents of Seoul posing for photos and forming a bottleneck in front of the Christmas tree, which is at a junction of the stream and the pedestrian path between the popular Seoul Metropolitan Subway stations of Euljiro1ga and Jonggak on Lines 2 and 1, respectively. A nearby Philippine Department of Tourism booth gives away dried mangos, luggage tags and “More Fun in the Philippines” shopping bags to passers-by. At the end of the festival on November 17, DOT will raffle off four (4) round-trip tickets to the Philippines from Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to the participating public. On the festival’s official Visit Seoul site run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Capiz Lanterns from the Philippines are presented as display No. 26. “The Christmas lanterns made using capiz shells, a kind of oyster native to the Philippines, are characterized by their eco-friendly beauty. The Philippines is known as the country with the longest Christmas celebration, during which capiz lanterns decorate homes, buildings, parks, and other establishments around the country.” - END -