Lets Travel Philippines

The Sinulog Festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festivals in the Philippines. The main festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Niño, or the holy child Jesus,the patron of the whole province of Cebu. The word “santo” means “holy” (in this case) and not “saint”. A similar example is Santo Rosario, meaning Holy Rosary and not Saint Rosary. It is essentially a dance ritual that 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.

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.

So, for those of you who wanted to witness the beautiful and exciting Sinulog Festival better arrive in Cebu before January 20, 2008 ’cause its the showdown day of all the participant who came from the different barangays of Cebu City and from the different City of the Philippines who came across to join the open Category of the said festival. In fact, Iligan City were I grew up is one of the depending contestants who will be competing again to win the crown.