Last weekend Steph and I were fortunate enough to experience Sinulog.
Sinulog celebrates the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines in 1521. The Spanish conquistador Magellan landed in Cebu and shortly after baptised many of the local inhabitants (probably more by coercion than conversion). As a baptism gift he gave the community a statue of the child Jesus, the 'Santo Nino'.
This Statue of 'Santo Nino' is still kept in the basilica of the Santo Nino here in Cebu. Once a year he is taken out for a huge celebration. Sinulog is the biggest event of the year in Cebu, literally millions of people flock here from across the Philippines.
On the Friday the statue is taken to the Church of the Virgin Mary on the nearby Mactan Island, from there, on the Saturday morning, he is brought back to Cebu by boat. Thousands of people line the shoreline to see the boat sail past, waving to Santo Nino as he passing, and a lucky few (including us) get to be aboard boats taking part in this fluvial parade.
Once ashore a 5 hour procession starts which this year travelled nearly 7km and was about 3km long, the back markers arriving an hour later than the statue at the front.
The day culminates in a mass at the basilica celebrated before enormous crowds, many of whom kept a long way from the altar by the number of people present.
Sinulog is a day of celebration which is very hard to describe in words (hopefully the video below and those coming later will help). Music, dancing and singing abound. Replica Santo Ninos, often outnumbering people, being waved and held aloft at every visible angle. Real joy and exuberance rings through the streets. They certainly know how to celebrate!
Absolutely amazing - I guess no normal traffic used the river that day!! Looking forward to seeing the next video, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteNo, no normal traffic was going to get through, and even the ferries seemed to have mostly been commandeered to join the procession.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a river though, it is actually a narrow stretch of sea, between Cebu island, and Mactan island (which is joined to Cebu by two bridges and is home to the airport).