In keeping with the Easter season theme and to honor my heritage (I am half Filipino) I found this great set of photos by Farl of the Sinulog festival in Cebu Philippines this January. I think Farl does an amazing job of capturing the festival participants during the parade. It really makes me want to see it for myself one day.
Sinulog.ph, the official website of the festival in Cebu City, offers a better explanation of Sinulog than I ever could.
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 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 essentially a dance ritual which 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.
Although I was born in the Philippines, my parents moved the family to Seattle when I was 3 years old so I don't remember a lot. Unfortunately time and circumstance has kept me from visiting but when I do attending the festival in January is a definite must see. My mom would be so proud!
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