By Mary Clarince David/ PTV
Just as the Christmas season and festivities draws into a close, Cebu City and the district of Tondo in Manila prepares yet for another celebration—the iconic feast of the Holy Child or more commonly known as the Sto. Niño.
In Cebu City, a renown religious town, is known for its revered faith to the Sto. Niño through the Sinulog Festival. Now on its 454thyear, the Fiesta Señor of the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu (commonly known as the Santo Niño Basilica), has been the most anticipated festival in the country and its annual celebration is a highlight of Cebu City.According to an article from the website Catholic and Cultures, the Sinulog—which is one of the most attended Catholic event in the world—is a jovial celebration for almost two weeks, culminating on thethird Sunday of January. The merriment incorporates a range of civic events like beauty contests and parades into the occasion as well as series of masses, water and land processions, street dances, concerts, and fireworks, which is witnessedand attended by some 1.5 to 3 million people from around the globe.
Meanwhile, the feast of the Sto. Niño de Tondo Church, which is housed in the Tondo Church established by the Augustinians in the late 1500s, is a well-participated occasion. Tondo’s terrain is known to consist several waterways, hence the residents of Tondo celebrate the feast with a grand fluvial procession. For the residents of Tondo, the fiesta celebration usually ranges from the hanging of banderitas throughout the district, installing elaborately decorated archways and streamers bearing the popular chant “Viva El Sto. Niño!” and Eucharistic celebrations beginning on the eve of the fiesta. The processions on the day of the fiesta, usually one in the morning and the other before sundown, pass through the main thoroughfares, occasionally stopping for a display of fireworks, and the release of doves. The Sto. Niño Fiesta of Tondo culminates in the Lakbayaw Street Dance Festival, a competition among Ati-Atihan groups, schools, community, and religious organizations.
Filipinos are indeed known as people of deep and great faith. Throughout the year, the Filipinos would manifest this kind of faith through various religious celebrations such as the advent, lent, Easter and various “fiestas” honoring patron saints.The feast of Sto. Niño is a devotion and a spectacle of activities. May this event remind us that despite hardships, may we remain youthful and cheerful just like the Child Jesus.
