Tag: December 12, 2011

The quadricentennial edition of the UST Christmas Concert Gala last Dec. 1 at the UST Chapel (Santissimo Rosario Church) was made more memorable by the playing of the UST Martyrs’ Carillon bells.

Formally opening the event was the lighting of a Christmas tree in front of the UST Chapel by Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and the concert organizers Maricris Zobel and Rev. Fr. Isidro Abano, OP. As the Christmas tree was lit, Dean Raul Sunico of the Conservatory of Music accompanied the ringing of newly inaugurated Carillon with his piano-playing.

Father Rector Magnificus Rolando V. De la Rosa, OP welcomed the audience consisting of VIP’s and the who’s who in Philippine society.

THE MANILA Cathedral launched four new wedding songs composed by a Thomasian last Nov. 29 along with the opening of its sixth Pipe Organ Festival.

“This time, we’re trying to go back again in the old ways of composing liturgical music, that is using ‘approved texts’ like psalms and proper antiphons,” cathedral music minister Ferdinand Bautista said, who composed the new wedding musical themes.

First in the list of new Catholic wedding songs is Ang Ngalan mo Poon, which is to be used for the grand wedding entrance. The piece was accompanied by music from the pipe organ, trumpet, violin, contrabass, and timpani.

A CONFERENCE on “nation and culture” was convened by Sen. Edgardo Angara, National Artist for Literature and UST alumnus Francisco Sionil Jose and gathered artists, cultural leaders, politicians, and thinkers to chart the direction of the nation at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Dec. 3.

The conference was convened in connection with the 150th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal.

“Have we grown in solidarity as a nation?” asked Angara in his opening address. “Or have we become more divided as a people?”

POLITICAL Science junior John Carlo Pacala won this year’s Rector’s Literary Award (RLA) for his Katha entry, “Liham,” during the 27th Gawad Ustetika last Dec. 3 at the Quadricentennial Park.

Pacala won the RLA in the face of a rather depleted arena of competition as there were no first-place winners in five out of eight categories. So depleted was the field that there was no winner declared in the Fiction category, not even an honorable mention.

Earlier, Pacala was proclaimed Tomasinong Kuwentista ng Taon for “Liham,” about the personal letters of a correctional prisoner to her mother.

FILIPINO writers gathered for the 54th national congress of the the Philippine Center of International PEN (Poets and Playwrights, Essayists and Novelists) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines onDecember 1 and 2 vowed to work for a “literature of survival” to combat climate change and environmental destruction.

With the theme “Archipelagic Feasts, Tropical Disasters: The Literature of Survival,” the PEN led by National Artists F. Sionil Jose (PEN founder) and Bienvenido Lumbera (PEN chairman), who are both Thomasians, discussed issues revolving around natural calamities, environmental degradation, and social, economic, political, and cultural disasters that plague the nation,.

IT TAKES a lot of patience for a child to wait until the time to open presents on Christmas Eve. Parents tuck them in bed and tell them to wait till the morning, but they always manage to scurry out of bed minutes before the clock strikes 12. They can’t wait to see their presents.

TATLONG taon at dalawang nobela—isang patunay na buhay na buhay ang panitikang Filipino.

Ito ang naging mukha ng lunsad-aklat ng dalawa sa mga pinakabantog na pangalan sa lokal na panitikang sina Ricardo “Ricky” Lee at Eros Atalia noong Nob. 27 at 28 sa SM North Edsa Sky Dome at Thomas Aquinas Research Complex (TARC).

PASKO na naman at nasasabik na ang mga Tomasino sa pagdiriwang ng Paskuhan.

Ang Paskuhan ang taunang pagdiriwang ng Unibersidad para sa nalalapit na araw ng Pasko. Dito nagtitipon ang mga Tomasino—mga pari, propesor, manggagawa, at mga mag-aaral—upang sama-samang makinig ng misa, kumain ng libreng handaang inihahain ng Unibersidad, at masaksihan ang magarbong konsiyerto at fireworks display. Ganito kalaki ang pagdiriwang ng Paskuhan kaya naman ang paghahanda para sa pagdiriwang na ito ay mabusisi.

Ang unang Paskuhan sa Unibersidad ay ginanap noong Disyembre 19, 1991 sa temang “Paskong Tomasino, Paskong Filipino ’91.”