Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines Celebrates Sinulog Festival

Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines Celebrates Sinulog Festival

By Success Kanayo Uchime
Special to ASSIST News Service


CEBU, PHILIPPINES (ANS) -- The entire city of Cebu, Philippines last Saturday and Sunday, witnessed what may be termed by many as the most celebrated festival after Christmas, when the entire Roman Catholic Church trooped out in their thousands to celebrate the age-long festival of Sinulog.


The festival which is looked upon by every Cebuano Catholic faithful,









Children in Cebu celebrate the Sinulog festival


featured series of dances in the streets, big malls like Ayalla, SM, Metro Guaisano etc., and also long march pasts across major highways in the city.


Sinulog is described as one of the major and colorful festivals in the Philippines, usually held on the third Sunday of January each year in Cebu City to honor the Santo Nino or the child Jesus-the oldest religious image used mainly by the Philippines Catholic faithfuls, and is also said to be the patron saint of the whole province of Cebu.

History has it that the wooden image of Santo Nino, which was made by Flemish artisans, was brought to the island of Cebu by the famous Fernao Magellan in 1521, just like the Magellan cross and that Magellan gave the Santo Niño image to Queen Juana as a baptismal gift.

One of the celebrants recounts that the festival which features unique dancing steps of forward and backwards movement is primarily a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people's pagan past and their recognition of Christianity.

According to a Rev. Father who spoke in a position of anonymity at the Basilica ground in Cebu, the word 'Sinulog' is derived from the Cebuano word sulog, which literally means "water current movement," and it proficiently describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance.

"The Sinulog dance usually is a two steps forward and one step backward dance and it's done according to the sound of the drum. You see some of the candle sellers here in the Basilica, how they perform the traditional version of the dance when they light candles for people. They do the songs in the native language as it was done in the beginning," the Rev. Father added.

The festival featured some of the country's most colorful displays of ceremony and pageantry and participants were clothed in bright-colored costumes and danced to the rhythm of drums and native gongs.

And what's more the streets of Cebu were generally lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing, with smaller versions of the festival held in different parts of the province to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño.

It's said that since 1521, loyalty to the Santo Niño has grown and has taken root in Filipino popular holiness, particularly in the Visayas area and that pilgrims from different parts of Cebu and the rest of the Philippines make their yearly journey to the Basilica to take part in the procession and fiesta.

Informed sources said that it was David S. Odilao, Jr., a one-time Regional Director of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development (MYSD), who was credited to have organized the first ever Sinulog Parade in 1980, when he gathered a group of students, dressed them up in moro-moro costumes and taught them the Sinulog to the beating of the drums.










Success Kanayo Uchime is a Nigerian missionary-journalist. He is the President of Kingdom Missions Outreach Inc.(KMO). He holds an Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria, Masters and Doctoral Degrees in Christian Ministry and Missions respectively from Go Ye Christian University, U.S. A. At present he lives in the Philippines with his family preparatory to moving over to Thailand to continue his foreign mission assignment. He's the Editor in Chief/Moderator World Mission News (WMN), an on-line mission news service. Uchime is a member of Journalist for Christ Nigeria (JFCN), Committee of Concerned Journalists, Washington D.C, U.S.A, etc. He's the author, Every Christian A Missionary, Your Church Can Go For Mission, The Rudiments of Biblical Fasting, Jesus Christ the Ultimate Messiah. For more information about him log on to kanayo4missions.googlepages.comOR www.seamist.org/uchime

write successkuchime@yahoo.co.uk.

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