FESTIVAL QUEEN - Sinulog 2009

One afternoon I went to one of the most popular mall here in Cebu “Shoe Mart”, to buy some basic groceries and I was lucky enough to witness a pictorial of the different contestants of the Festival   Queen.  These contestants are the lead dancers of the different contingents from all over the Philippines for the Grand parade of streets dancing on the Sinulog day that was January 18, 2009. I believe the process of selection to be a lead dancer is not easy, she must be graceful, nice body, attractive, beautiful, smiling, and good command in English with the rigid months of practice of the group dance presentation.

                .THE WINNER  “SINULOG 2009 FESTIVAL QUEEN”

The ladies were so beautiful in their own rights, with their exotic looks and unique headdress and intricately beautiful made costumes. And I was fortunate enough to take some pictures of this lovely Queen, who obliged with a captivating smile.

Sinulog Festival 2009 - Cebu, Philippines

Would you believe that Cebu City has the longest Holiday Season from Christmas to New Year and finally the Sinulog Festival. The country’s biggest, grandest and most anticipated festival is set to take center stage once again this year —the Sinulog Festival 2009. This festival is the country’s biggest pageantry of sights, sounds and colors.

 Sinulog, the fiesta of Cebu in honor of the child Jesus, the Santo Nino, celebrated every third Sunday of January. It is a dance ritual that commemorates the Cebuano’s pagan origin, and their acceptance of Christianity. The word “Sinulog” comes from the Cebuano adverb sulog which means “like water current movement”, that describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance. The dance consists of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of drums.

 The Santo Nino image. .

On April 7, 1521, the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan arrived and planted the cross on the shores of Cebu, claiming the territory in the name of the King of Spain. He presented the image of the child Jesus, the Santo Niño, as baptismal gift to Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon. Hara Amihan was later named, Queen Juana in honor of Juana, mother of Carlos I.

 The celebration traditionally lasts for nine days, culminating on the ninth day when the Sinulog Grand Parade starts. The day before the parade, the Fluvial Procession, a water-parade, held at dawn from Mandaue City to Cebu City with the Santo Niño carried on a pump boat decked with hundreds of flowers and candles. The procession ends at the Basilica where a re-enactment of the Christianizing of Cebu follows. In the afternoon, a more solemn procession takes place along the major streets of the city, which last for hours due to large crowd participating in the religious event.

On the feast day, at the Basilica, a Pontifical Mass is celebrated by the Cardinal with the assistance of several bishops of Cebu. The majority of the city’s population and devotees would flock to the Basilica to attend the mass before heading out to the streets to watch the Parade.

 The grand parade usually starts at 8:00 in the morning and is participated by different province and this contengent are champion on their respective festival this year there are twenty six for sinulog base category and twenty six for free interpretation and thirty for float competition and it will culminate at the oval of the Cebu City Sports Center and the final showdown of heart stopping performance of the dancers, vying for championship for different categories. A grand display of fireworks concludes this event.

The celebration that everyone awaits every year.

CEBU- Philippines (my place of residence)

Cebu is often called “the Island Paradise”, with 167 islands with land area of 5,088 sq. km. 80%mountainous and 20% flat. Cebu City  the “Queen City of the South” Once voted by Asia Week as one of Asia’s Best Cities, it  is the country’s oldest City, with a rich historic past. Cebuano are extremely proud of their cultural and historical heritage, a legacy which has endured thru centuries from the time of the great explorer Ferdinand Magellan first planted the Cross on the Cebu shore.

Time has been kind to Cebu, from Zubu, the fishing village and busy trading port; it has evolved a highly urbanized Metropolitan Center which now serves as a focal point of growth and development of Southern Philippines. It has eight cities and forty eight smaller towns and the traditional products are copra, mango, sugar and banana. And the nontraditional products are electronics, computer software, semi-conductors, watches, components, clothing, accessories, woodcraft and furniture’s. Currently it has six economic zones and industrial product. It is one of the biggest outsourcing in Southeast Asia. Cebu has more than enough engineers and fluent speaking college graduates to man call centers and IT related services. Shipping industry is one of the busiest in the country and the Cebu international Airport with direct flights in the key Cities of South East Asia; domestic flights are available practically to all Cities of the Philippines.

Cebu has become the country’s most favorite tourist destination and jump off point to the neighboring Islands of the visayas region. It has a narrow coastlines, limestone plateaus, and coastal plains, all characteristics of a tropical island. It has gained with idyllic white sandy beaches and pristine clear waters and the popularity for its fantastic diving grounds evidenced by the proliferation of resorts which offer luxurious accommodations, like Shangrila, Plantation bay, Hilton resort, White sands, Alegre beach resort and more.  

Yet, Cebu’s attractions do not only cater to the itinerant sun-worshipper or beach-lover. The business traveler to this bustling port of call may not have time for more than a day’s trip around town. Still, Cebu’s cityscapes have their own brand of cosmopolitan charm touched with unique island warmth. Luxurious accommodations, like Waterfront hotel and Casino, Marco Polo hotel, Marriot Hotel, complete sports facilities, cuisines from the native to the exotic, vibrant nightlife: It has also an international convention center, and world class Malls. Cebu will not be found wanting in all the amenities of a growing, booming metropolis.

lunch in paradise

We were invited for a lunch by my favorite cousin while we were still in Surigao del Norte, Philippines. My cousin is Mrs. Andrea  Yangzon we fondly call her “mana  anding” she is  the Barrio Captain of their place, Ipil ,Surigao city and her  husband is the head of marine engineering  one of the college in here.  We arrive at exactly 12:00 noon. The concrete blue house is visible from the main road with the same color of the ten feet high entrance gate which is twenty  meters from the highway.

As we enter we were  amazed by  the big front lawn covered with medium pebbles stones  evenly  distributed. The house is one story, color blue with a big veranda, the interior is  with basic furnishing but elagantly decorated.The surrounding of the house is plus factor, with a big lawn and a rice field at the back ,the side  near the fence is full beautiful orchids of different colors and varieties, together with some exotic flowers and palm trees, beneath is carpeted with  bright color green Bermuda grass. But the most exotic beautiful orchids are found on the porch of the house.  And on the left side a big nepa hut for relaxing and across the fence are full of citrus fruits, mango’s  together with full grown coconut trees and into the valley covered with lush green shrubs up to the top, wow a beautiful scenery, you could feel the wonders of nature, it’s almost paradise.  And to top it all its just a walking distance to “Mabua  Beach”a  two to three kilometers  strip of pebbled  sand beach  …

We were greeted by our  amiable host and directly brought us to the dining room, the food was plenty from bouillabaisse soup,  large shrimps, grilled Kitong(fish), crispy pata(fried pork leg), kinilaw(fresh raw fish mix with vinegar and  condiments)fried chicken legs, Camote, different fruits and the dessert  is buko fruit salad. Oh my God what a sumptuous meal the food was beyond our expectation, after a short prayer we start our feast to all the delicious food while talking the latest news of the clan.

I could hardly stand after the dessert, I was a little bit guilty for having sinful eating… but I guess this is a rare occasion and hard to come, the sea food was really tempting. 

I took a nap for an hour and the rest of the company are playing the old time favorite, Mahjong.  We left at 4:00pm happy and satisfied , thanking the host for the delicious food,  hoping for another   invitation to come… he he he

new year escapade

I bought a ticket a week before our travel to Surigao , leaving Cebu December 27, through Cokaliong  MV Maasin, we had a lot of baggage, bringing some gifts, calendars, fruits  to our beloved relatives and for my mom and sis Emily. We are all excited and happy to travel.  We arrive Surigao early morning of December 28 at around 8:00am and we were met by my nephew Frances, and we directly went to Jollibee for breakfast, and then travelled for 45 minutes to our hometown.

My 87 year old mom was very happy to see us and cried for happiness. We distributed some of the gifts to our respected cousins and relatives; it was so fun and there is this feeling of enlightenment everytime we hear the words “Thank You”..

 The following day, we travelled to Gingoog City, for an overnight invitation to our family friend Beb’s and Marlyn Guanzon–the owner of the Mansion by the Sea Restaurant.  The travel was fine, I was driving the XTO Crosswind–the service car of my mom. Along the way we saw the beautiful Mainit lake.

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We arrived in our destination at lunch time and met our host, we are all pleased and delighted that they have prepared seafood and native cuisines for our lunch such as grilled pork, panga, sugbakilaw, grilled fish, shells soup and others. It was great lunch and we were all full and sleepy after the meal. Then after our afternoon nap we went to Duka Beach Resort, a beautiful place where you can really see the wonders of nature. We had a glass bottom ride where we can see the sea, amazing corals and fishes of the sanctuary.  We dropped by in the hidden cold spring named Mabuan, then, at 6:00pm we went back for our supper. It was a buffet dinner such an excellent food with some of their guests. After eating, we roam around the city and visited some relatives and mingle with them for a few minutes.  We also visited their plaza which was decorated with different native lanterns ingeniously created with different twinkled lights. You could surely feel the atmosphere of Christmas. The other side of the plaza was full of gigantic concrete fruits beautifully made and designed. And later we visited their pier turned into park in front of the restaurant of our host. We felt tired and slept soundly for the night but the girls are still having a never-ending-conversation.

We woke up early in the following morning ready to go back home. Our breakfast  was nutritious. We really didn’t know how to thank our hosts for they treated us way more than we expected. No words are enough for the gratitude we feel.  The travel back was smooth and safe, but the rain continuously poured, I wonder when the rain stopped. We dropped by at Gaisano mall – Butuan city for some cakes and ingredients to be bought for the New Year. We arrived my hometown at around 2:00pm feelling tired and sleepy.

our  host  in Gingoog city

mr.&mrs. Beb’s and Marlyn Guanzon

The following day is another awaited day of the year, December 31, everybody was busy for the preparations for the New Year. The roasted pig was delivered at 7:00pm and some of my relatives shared some native sweets like suman, bingka, puto   and of course the 13 different round fruits on the center of the table. We attended the midnight holy mass which started at around 9:00 pm, the chapel was full of familiar people, neighbors, friends, relatives and classmates. Greetings and smiles from them was such a great feeling. We ate our dinner at around 11pm after the souvenir pictures. It was fun and exciting but the deafening sound of the fire crackers, was so strong, much more when the clock strike at 12:00 midnight. The kids jumped to make them taller, ate lots of grapes for good luck and coins on the pockets for financial blessings, we sang and danced till the wee hours of the morning. Wow! What a night. And another chapter of our lives has passed and the next, awaits to be unfolded.

noche buena (Christmas Eve)

Everybody seems on the rush, planning about the preparations here and there — preparations for the big night ,Christmas eve..

YES! A really big issue… especially when it concerns about the food, new clothes and a number of gifts to be given to your love ones….

Foods would be extraordinarily special… we have prepared some beef, roasted chicken, letchon, spaghetti, cakes, some sweets and red wine …  and everything should be in order.

But the most important thing is to attend the midnight mass to celebrate the birth of our creator JESUS CHRIST for He is the reason for the season. We dressed up in our new outfits together with our guests, my sister in Bacolod and her daughter Althea, a four year old pretty little girl. We attended the holy mass, it started at 9:00pm the church was overflowing with people all wearing their new clothes, all smiling and happy. The mood is indeed really inspiring where you can see thousands of people rejoicing.  A great feeling that is hard to explain for it’s too complicated yet truly overwhelming. I guess that is called the true spirit of Christmas.  Thus, I thank the Lord for all the blessings He bestowed upon us.

 We ate our sumptuous dinner early because of the kids and then opened our gifts. They were really excited and you could see it in their eyes and hear their ahhhhs and ohhhhs after opening their respected gift. Luckily, I  received a black Francois Girbaud  wallet which I badly needed, we started singing one by one through the  Wow magic sing (videoke) and the kids where dancing until midnight.  We greeted each other and hug and thank the lord for everything we have … and hoping that our brothers and sisters in other countries have celebrated and are having a good time. It was undeniably fun. A memory worth keeping and forever be remembered.