Sinulog Pit Senyor 2012: A Joyous Festival for Cebuano and for All

The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest, most distinguished and most colorful festivals in the Philippines. The major 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 fundamentally a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people's pagan past and their recognition of Christianity.

The festival features some the country's most colorful displays of ceremony and pageantry: participants clothe in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums and native gongs. The streets are generally lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in different 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 highlighting groups 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.

Background

'Sinulog' comes from the Cebuano adverb sulog which is "like water current movement," which proficiently describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance. Traditionally, the dance consists of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of the drums. The dance is classified into Sinulog-base, Free-Interpretation, and recently a Latin Category, which most people have argued that it had nothing to do with Sinulog tradition. Candle vendors at the Basilica continue to perform the traditional version of the dance when lighting a candle for the customer, usually accompanied by songs in the native language.

Sinulog Pit Senyor Sto. Niño

More than the Sinulog as time for festivities and partying, the core of the feast of the Sto. Niño de Cebu is the celebration of the institution of Christianity in the Philippines -  the story as told in the Gozos (Batobalani sa Gugma), the lyrics you can find in parishes. I found a sort of English version of this here.  Batobalani is said to mean magnet while gugma means love.

During the novena for the Sto. Niño, the Gozos will be sung by the devotees as they wave their hands up in the air.  As far as I am concerned, the experience always gives me goose flesh, sometimes even tears especially if I’m in “great depression” and despite that I am not a devotee myself, or not really at focus on religions.

Gozos

Bato balani sa gugma,
Sa daang tawo palangga.

Tubag:

 
KANAMO MALOOY KA UNTA
NGA KANIMO NANGGILABA

Dinhi sa siyudad sa Sugbo
ang matahum mong larawan.
sa unang mga misyonero,
sa usang balay hipalgan.
Kanila ikaw nagpakita
gikan da sa imong gugma.

Tubag:

 
KANAMO MALOOY KA UNTA
NGA KANIMO NANGGILABA

Giludhan ka ug gisimba
niadtong mga kaparian
sa tanang mga katawhan
sa mga ponoan nila:
kay sa pagtan-aw kanimo
Kristiyanos sila nahimo.

Tubag:

 
KANAMO MALOOY KA UNTA
NGA KANIMO NANGILABA

Ang simbahan gipatindog
niadtong mga tawhana,
aron ang larawan nimo
dunay usang puluyanan.
ug didto gihangyo nila
nga kaluy-an nimo sila.

Tubag:

 
KANAMO MALOOY KA UNTA
NGA KANIMO NANGILABA

Nangayo kami kanimo
nga ang matahum mong larawan,
sa sulud sa kalag namo
makahimog puluyanan,
kay sa tanang kinahanglan
ikaw ang among dalangpan.

Tubag:

 
KANAMO MALOOY KA UNTA
NGA KANIMO NANGILABA

wow, sinulog festival is really a great festival I've ever met in my life and I'm so proud being a cebuano and being a patron of Senyor Sto. Niño. Come and witnessed the joyous and miraculous Sto. Niño in Cebu.

Viva! Pit Senyor Everyone!