THE COLORFUL & GRAND SINULOG FESTIVAL OF CEBU, PHILIPPINES

If you’re planning on visiting the Philippines, tell me: are you the kind of traveler who not only likes to part-ey but also wants to be a part of something big and significant? Well if you are, I suggest that you time your trip in early January so that you can catch one of the grandest events that the country has: Cebu’s Sinulog Festival!

WHAT IS SINULOG FESTIVAL ?
The Sinulog Festival is a lively celebration that lasts for 9 days, and it is typically held on the 3rd Sunday of January in the city of Cebu. Said to be the center of the Santo Niño celebration in the Philippines, one of the main highlights of this festivity would be the Sinulog Grand Parade that runs for 9 to 12 hours! This parade is held on the final day, and it is soooo popular that millions of people (that are not only composed of Filipinos but also foreigners from around the world) would flock to this occasion every year.

TRIVIA: In fact, it once reached 4 million visitors. In a way, this celebration can easily rival the colorful Carnival in Rio de Janeiro – Brazil or even Mardi Gras!

Now, what happens during this Sinulog Festival’s grand parade? Street dancing of course!

It’s basically a long procession that consists of several grouped street dancers who are all clad in colorful costumes and backdropped with amazingly-decorated platforms. As they go through the whole of the town, they would perform either their own dance steps or the ‘Sinulog dance‘ — a distinct forward-backward movement which is in tune to a very recognizable drumbeat that identifies this festivity. To add, this dance step perfectly depicts the meaning of the word ‘Sinulog’ which is from the Cebuano adverb ‘sulog’ which means: “like a water current movement“.

TRIVIA: Usually, the dancers’ performances are interpretations of how Santo Niño had helped their respective communities.

And as they dance, they would occasionally shout petitions or words of thanks like “Pit Senyor kang Mama kini, Pit Senyor kang Papa kini!” or simply the more identifiable phrase “Viva Pit Señor!” which means “to call, ask, and plead to the king”. There would also be a girl that’s usually in front of each group who would wave icons of the Santo Niño in their hands as they move along the crowd.

This is actually some sort of reenactment of Queen Amihan (the wife of the Rajah or former king of Cebu) who had received the image of the Sto. Nino in the past — an occurrence that is signifcant a part of how Sinulog Festival commemmorates the Filipino’s acceptance of Christianity.

AS A CEBUANO FROM PHILIPPINES IVE ALWAYS PARTICIPATE SINULOG EXPERIENCE EVERY YEAR AND THIS IS MY FIRST
TIME EXPERIENCE STORIES.

To sum it all up in one word, my first Sinulog Festival was… intense. And I bet every first-timer out there has the same sentiment! Truth be told, it actually still surprises me how I was able to survive walking through the throng of people as I tried to get from one place to another.

It was really crazy.

I went to this event with my friends back in 2002 my first experienced and initially, there were 10 of us who were all moving altogether during the procession; but as the day droned on, the sea of people forced us to separate and I ended up with just 4 of my friends with me!

(Thank goodness for technology though, we managed to get together again later by the day.)

Now our Sinulog adventure turned out to be some sort of obstacle activity since our accommodation was situated outside the city center — and the city center is exactly where the festival’s core events were being held. Most streets were already blocked at that point thought, therefore we can’t just get a taxi or a jeepney in order to reach the procession. That’s why in the end, we had to walk.

Mind you, walking wasn’t such an easy task since we had to go through 5 various locations that were ridiculously packed with people, and it was only a couple of hours later that we finally reached a less-crowded area that enabled us to watch the grand parade. Naturally at that time, I was already exhausted!

But then again… as I stood there watching the street dancers, I started to feel that the ‘trouble’ that I had gone through was oh-so-worth-it because it was an absolute spectacle to watch the parade up close! For one thing, it was soooo colorful, and along with the smiles and cheerful faces of the performers, I just can’t help but feel as if all my exhaustion had melted away.

Besides, they really put a LOT of effort into everything. Just think about all the work that they had to do in order to come up with their costumes and equipment!

AND YES PARTY THE PARTY GOERS OF CEBU IS THE BEST!! :)

Come night time, the grand parade typically ends and the street dancers will do their final performance at the Cebu City Sports Complex. (This is where they will hold the competition leg of the Sinulog festival with 3 categories, namely the Street Dancing Category, Free Interpretation and Sinulog base categories.)

It was quite impossible for us to join this event since the sports complex was too packed, that’s why we decided to simply roam the streets and attend the late night parties!

Yep, Sinulog Festival doesn’t end with the parade because after that is done with, everyone goes to Mango Square, Baseline or Fuente Osmeña to have some fun until the wee hours of the next day. Truth be told, most would say that this is the best part of Sinulog! (See below a video on how a typical Sinulog Festival night party goes).

Sinulog Invasion 2014 Official Movie from Spectrum TV on Vimeo.

As you can see, it can get pretty rowdy here since everyone is on ‘wild mode’ — but in a fun and good way! First things first, expect people to put paint on you. Like… a LOT of it! And sometimes, you could expect random people to just go up to you, hug you, and be chummy with you.

I actually experienced the ‘hugging’ part, and it was funny and scary (just a tiny bit) all at the same time.

I was walking with Jonas and my friends along one of the party places when suddenly, I saw around 7 people in front who were looking straight at me… and I just knew at that instant that I was their target, and as if on cue, they started to scream, “Free hugs! Group hug!”

Since I was also obviously in Sinulog wild mode, for sure I was like, heck yeah, why not? And so I let them hug me. LOL.

But what was supposed to be nice calm hugs (well at least that’s what I thought) turned out to be tight rough hugs. Think: hugging someone to death. I started to think, “Uh-oh, I think I’m gonna fall… Wait, or am I going to be trampled?”

Fortunately, Jonas was there so as soon as he saw what was happening, he tried to pry away the number of people who were all over me. Now let’s take into consideration how Jonas is a giant, so safe to say, the hugging parade let me go once they glanced at the ‘tower’ before them. :P

Of course they meant well, and honestly, though they were freakishly hyper, it was actually a fun moment nonetheless! I guess they were intoxicated either with beer or with the festival’s atmosphere… and I can’t blame them for that because again, Sinulog is really intense!
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