2012 (VIDEO)
[PHOTO - SANTO NIÑO IMAGES TO MEET FOR
'DINAGYANG' FEAST: AFTER weeks of negotiation, the image of the Sto. Niño de
Arevalo will welcome the arrival of the image of Sto. Niño de Cebu in Iloilo
City on January 19, Thursday, to grace the annual Dinagyang
Festival.]
MANILA JANUARY 12, 2012 (STAR)
COLORFUL streets, rolling drums and Visayan hospitalities will once
again dominate the streets of the "Queen City of the South" as it celebrates the
32nd Sinulog Festival this year.
The Sinulog, one of the country's grandest and most anticipated festivities,
was celebrated in honor of the famous miraculous image of Sto. Niño at Basilica
Minore del Santo Nino.
Sinulog dance steps move to the sound of the drums that resembled the current
(sulog) of what was then known as Cebu's Pahina River.
[PHOTO - THOUSANDS JOIN 'WALK WITH JESUS' IN CEBU: THOUSANDS of Sto.
Niño devotees yesterday braved the cold dawn breeze to participate in the
penitential foot procession that is popularly known as the Walk with
Jesus.]
Historians claimed that long before Ferdinand Magellan introduced
Christianity in the country, natives have already practiced Sinulog dance to
honor their gods.
Sinulog Festival is considered the most colorful parade in the country, which
features seven floats, depicting seven different periods of history. Dancers
wearing costumes illustrating the periods followed each float, dancing in a
unified beat of drums.
In 1980, David Odilao Jr., then Regional Director of the Ministry of Sports
and Youth Development (MYSD), organized the first Sinulog parade inviting
teachers to make distinctive steps for the festival.
In its early years, Sinulog was a total stranger. Too often, it was mistaken
as a mimic of some other festivals in the country. But year after year the
quality of participation gets better with millions of local and foreign tourists
flocking Cebu City for its observance.
This grand festivities gathered audiences across the globe, it is now
reaching US mainland, Australia and some parts in Europe and Asia through
www.philstar.com webcast.
In the end, Sinulog Festival marked the rise of the tourism industry in Cebu
City, and topped as the country's most awaited festival.
What began as a revival of an old dance enhanced the people's cultural
awareness gave Cebuanos a shared passion and identity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bljMD3Aql8c&feature=player_embedded
About The Sinulog Festival
The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful
festivals in the Philippines with a very rich history. The main festival is held
each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Niño,
or the child Jesus, who used to be the patron saint of the whole province of
Cebu (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is
essentially a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people's pagan past and
their acceptance of Christianity.
The festival features some the country's most colorful displays of pomp and
pageantry: participants garbed in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of
drums, trumpets, and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors
and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. Smaller versions of
the festival are also held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate
and honor the Santo Niño. There is also a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is
performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.
Aside from the colorful and festive dancing, there is also the SME trade fair
where Sinulog features Cebu export quality products and people around the world
flock on the treasures that are Cebu.
Recently, the cultural event has been commercialized as a tourist attraction
and instead of traditional street-dancing from locals, Sinulog also came to mean
a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog
Contest is traditionally held in the Cebu City Sports Complex, where most of
Cebu's major provincial events are held.
Cradle of Christianity and History
Before the arrival of Spaniards the province of Cebu was known as
Zubu was an island inhabited by pagans, and Islamic people who traded with other
Asian civilization.
Though the patron saint of Cebu is the Our Lady of Guadalupe, most of the
natives honour Santo Nino de Cebu, the Holy Child Jesus as their patron saint.
Historical accounts reveal that the wooden Santo Nino was a bequest by the
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan after his arrival in the Philippine soil
on 16 March 1521under the flagship of Spain to the wife of Rajah Humabon, Cebu's
chieftain. The image of Santo Niño became the emblem of friendship, taking, and
conversion to Christianity of the natives. For three hundred years, the
Philippines was colonised by the Spaniards—and Roman Catholic was a major
religion.
The wooden Santo Niño regarded by the Cebuanos as representation of their
affection was kept and housed in the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño and San
Nicholas de Tolentino church. A colourful and overgenerous yearly festivity was
conceptualised by the Cebuanos called "Sinulog" become a climactic symbol of
their undying devotion to the Santo Nino every third Sunday of January.
"Sinulog" plainly means "graceful dance" accompanied by drumbeats and a glum
holy mass become a crowd-drawing international cultural festival of Cebu. Cebu
has a Roman Catholic Archdiocese, and has numerous historical churches,
including the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral,
the San Carlos Church, the Santo Rosario Parish Church, San José-Recoletos
Church, and Sacred Heart Church as well as several other non-Catholic churches,
mosques, and temples.
And one of the most remarkable religious landmark of the province aside from
the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino is the Magellan's Cross. It is a wooden
tindalo cross said to be the same structure that Ferdinand Magellan planted in
the seashore upon his arrival in the Philippines soil in 1521. The antique cross
housed in an artistically made shrine became a witness to the rise and blazing
progress of Cebu as the civilizing heart of the Philippines.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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