109. Carnival Mascot: THE RED DEVIL

Fancy dress costumes and parties were known as early as the 15th centuryt in Italy, where the first masquerade balls were all the rage. These became so popular that similar events were opened to the public, in festivities marked with dances performed in attractive costumes.


Nearby countries adapted these masked balls, but it was the 18th century Victorians who expanded and elaborated the concept of fancy costume parties. The favorite costumes of the day were Harlequins, Jesters, Tarts and Vicars—and the Red Devil.


Red is the color most often associated with the Devil as it is the color of the fires of Hell, and is associated with lust, passion and excess. The Devil is also a symbol for a wild, uncontrollable spirit, chaos and the opposite of socially acceptable behavior, which aptly described the mood and ambiance of the Carnival. Hence, the Red Devil was adapted as one of the mascots of the Manila Carnivals, and the image of the grinning, be-winged red creature was extensively used in merchandising and promotions of the event. Revelers dressed as the Red Devils were seen on parades, or featured atop carrozas, thus perpetuating the mascot’s image.


The Red Devil also made its appearance on Carnival medals, but the skew towards industrial and agricultural progress forced the Organizers to review the Carnival icons; the Red Devil (as well as the Billiken) was eventually replaced with more positive allegorical characters of progress e.g. women holding the rich harvest of the land, idealized Filipinas before expansive rice fields.

108. Carnival Mascot: BILLIKEN

“I am the God of Happiness,
I simply make you smile..
I prove that life’s wroth living
And that everything’s worthwhile
I am the God of Happiness,
My name is Billiken”

In the early part of the 20th century, a Missouri art teacher, Florence Pretz, designed an elfin image with pointed ears, an impish smile and a conehead topped with a stub of hair. She had conceived this charm doll based on a dream, legend say, and in 1908, she acquired a patent for it and the manufacturers who produced the figures gave it a name—Billiken.

The world soon started its love affair with the Billiken. The mysterious chinky-eyed imp was imbued with a new persona—“the God of Things as they Ought To Be”. The Billiken was looked at as a giver of good luck and also as a ”sure cure for the Blues, that Solemn Feeling, the Grouch, the Hoodoo Germ, Hard-Luck Melancholia, the Down and Out Bacillus”.

It was for this reason that the first Manila Carnival of 1908 adopted the Billiken as its mascot. It had also been picked as the mascot of the 1909 Alaskan-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and its likeness was carved by Eskimos in precious ivory.

The Carnival Billiken made its appearance in local newspaper editorial cartoons, a sort of a welcome official to Carnival visitors. There were also dressed-up Billiken mascots who joined the parades and fascinated the young and old alike. Surprisingly, the Billiken was not reproduced on Carnival medals—unlike the other carnival –the Red Devil.

True to its nature, the Billiken was depicted as a happy figure, always with a wide lucky grin and open arms for all. “As long as I smile at you”, a Billiken poem reminds, “bad luck can’t harm you. Grin and begin to win!”.

Indeed, the Billiken blessed the very first Carnival with great luck—after all the earnings and expenses were totaled, there was a sizable profit of P13,391.30 left. This, aside from countless orders for local products exhibited by the provinces in their booths (Laguna received P15,000 worth of orders from one foreigner alone). Equally valuable was the international goodwill generated by the national event. Well done for “the smiling god of good fortune, the original divinity of optimism”—the Billiken!