03 June 2014- Some Filipino Christmas traditions were featured at the annual International Children’s  Festival in Hamar, Hedmark County  from May 31 to June 1. 

The festival theme for 2014 was “Dreams” and the Philippine Embassy provided visitors a taste of  Filipino Christmas to children and parents alike such as the craft of cutting paper to make decorative wrappers for pastillas and tails for the parol, the art of decorating the star parol, and food samplers such as crispy lumpia, biko, cassava cake, bibingka, Philippine dried mangoes, and mango/tamarind candies. 

A mini exhibit featured manikins wearing the barong and a live demo of making small star parol frames for children to decorate. Children also enjoyed the “Pabitin” game with goody bags filled with popular biscuits made in the Philippines, such as Otap, chocolate filled crackers and assorted polvoron. 

Now in its fifth year, festival organizers estimate the number of visitors reached 12,000 plus. END