Sinulog Festival 2009 - Cebu, Philippines

January 28, 2009

 

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.