(credit to the sources of information which are not included in the presentation)

3. It is celebrated every
third Sunday of January
in Cebu City.

5. Theme: Celebrating the
local people’s transition
from paganism to
Catholicism

7. Costumes/Masks
Designs:
Crisscrossing of linear
lines; repeated curve
and streamlines; floral
and geometric designs

8. Pit Senyor kang Mama kini,
Pit Senyor kang Papa kini..”
is the chant completing
devotees’ offering dance
of Sinulog in honor of the
miraculous Santo Niño.

10.  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.

12. Sinulog is a dance ritual in
honor of the miraculous image
of the Santo Niño. The dance
moves two steps forward and
one step backward to the
sound of the drums. This
movement resembles the
current (Sulog) of what was
known as Cebu’s Pahina River.
Thus, in Cebuano, it’s Sinulog.

14.  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.

16. 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.

18.  The Festival
The celebration traditionally lasts for nine days,
ending on the ninth day when the Sinulog Grand
Parade reveals. The day before the parade, the
Fluvial Procession, a water-parade, held at dawn
from the Mandaue City wharf to Cebu City wharf
with the Santo Niño carried on a pump boat
decorated with hundreds of flowers and candles.
The procession ends at the Basilica where a re-
enactment of the Christianizing of Cebu follows. In
the afternoon, a more formal procession takes
place along the major streets of the city, which
last for hours due to large crowd participating in
the religious event.

20. On the feast day, at the
Basilica, a Pontifical Mass is
held, given by the Cardinal
with the assistance of several
bishops of Cebu. The majority
of the city’s population and
devotees would flock to the
Basilica to attend the mass
before heading out to the
streets to watch the Parade

22. 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

23.  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.

25.  History of Sinulog
Pre-Spanish and the First Wave of
Spaniards
Historians have renowned that before the
first Spaniards came to Cebu, the Sinulog
was already danced by the natives in
respect of their wooden god called
anitos. Then, on April 7, 1521, the
Portuguese navigator, Fernando de
Magallanes arrived and planted the cross
on the shores of Cebu, claiming the
territory in the name of the King of Spain.

26.  He then offered the image of the child
Jesus, the Santo Niño, as baptismal gift to
Hara Amihan, wife of Cebu's Rajah
Humabon. Hara Amihan was later
named, Queen Juana in honor of Juana,
Carlos I's mother. Along with the rulers of
the island, some 800 natives were also
baptized to the Christian faith.

28. Through the years since 1521,
the dance was a small ritual by
a few in front of wooden idols
or before the Santo Niño. In
fact, at the Santo Niño church
where the image is
consecrated, only the candle
vendors could be seen
dancing the Sinulog and
making offerings.

29.  This event is often used as foundation for
most Sinulog dances, which presents the
coming of the Spaniards and the
presentation of the Santo Niño to the
Queen. A famous theme among Sinulog
dances is Queen Juana holding the Santo
Niño in her arms and using it to bless her
people who are often worried by sickness
caused by demons and other evil spirits.

31. The Coming of Legazpi
After Magellan met his death on
April 27, 1521 on the shores of
Mactan (ruled by Muslim Rajah
Lapu-Lapu), the bits and pieces of
his men returned to Spain. However,
it took 44 years before the
Spaniards accomplished some
measure of success in colonizing
the islands and finally the whole
Philippines.

33.  The explorer, Miguel López de Legazpi
arrived in Cebu on April 28, 1565 and
destroyed the village ruled by Rajah
Tupas. In one of the huts of the burning
village, one of Legazpi's soldiers named
Juan Camus found a wooden box
containing the image of the Santo Niño
lying in the middle of several native
statue. Historians later said that during the
44 years between the coming of
Magellan and Legazpi, the natives of
Cebu continued to dance the Sinulog but
no longer to worship their anitos but to
show their worship to the Santo Niño.

34.  The Augustinian friars that accompanied
Legazpi in his expedition proclaimed the
statue miraculous and built a church on
the site where it was found. The church
was called San Agustin Church but was
later renamed to the Basilica Minore del
Santo Niño.

36. Letter to the King
After Juan Camus found
the Santo Niño in the
burning village, Legazpi was
said to have included the
event in his report, entitled
"Relation of Voyage to the
Philippine Islands." It went as
follows:

37.  "… Your Excellency should know that on
that day when we entered this village
(Cebu), one of the soldiers went into a
large and well-built house of an indio
where he found an image of the Child
Jesus (whose most holy name I pray may
be universally worshipped). This was kept
in its cradle, all covered with gold, just as if
it were brought from Spain: and only the
little cross, which is generally placed upon
the globe in his hands, was lacking.

39.  The image was well kept in that house,
and many flowers were found before it,
and no one knows for what object or
purpose. The soldier bowed down before
it with all reverence and wonder, and
brought the image to the place where
the other soldiers were. I pray to the Holy
Name of his image, which we found here,
to help us and to grant us victory, in order
that these lost people who are unaware
of the precious and rich treasure, which
was in their custody, may come to a
knowledge of Him."

41.  Sinulog is a very important part
of our culture. This is one of the
traces in history that
shows Filipino's acceptance to
Christianity and also shows the
creative minds of Oponganons
when it comes to these
festivals.
 Dance steps

42. Prepared by:
Merra Mae Ramos