The Sinulog of Love

CEBU, Philippines - In the Philippines, many are the festivals and cultural celebrations held and dedicated to the Holy Child of Sto. Niño. The original Ati-Atihan in Kalibo, the Ati-Atihan in Cadiz city, in Tondo and in Nayong Pilipino in Manila, the Dinagyang in Iloilo city, and the centuries-old Sinulog in Cebu – all these are religious and cultural celebrations held in honor of the Child Jesus Sto. Niño, observed year after year with generosity and love.

The devotions to the Sto. Niño has been practiced since the conversion of this country to the faith. This singular devotion was introduced and propagated by the Augustinians here and elsewhere. The Augustinian missionaries were the ones who brought the devotion to the Sto. Niño from Cebu to Tacloban, Tondo, Pandacan and the Ilocos regions. The same devotion was brought to Aklan by the Augustinians. This writer himself, an Augustinian, introduced the Dinagyang in Iloilo City as parish priest of San Jose Parish, Iloilo City in 1969. The Iloilo Dinagyang was organized way ahead of the Cebu Sinulog festival, which was organized in 1981.

The Sinulog Festival in Cebu City is both religious and cultural. As a religious celebration, it is offered in honor of the Sto. Niño , the Divine Child, God, Creator and Protector of the World. As cultural celebration, it is offered and dedicated to the Sto. Niño for the cultural uplift an reminder of the people of the Philippines, particularly Cebuanos.

During the Sinulog Festival, visitors from many parts of the country and tourists from abroad teem the City of Cebu. They come here not only to pay homage to the Sto. Niño but also to witness the display of the Cebuano culture through the dances. The revelries and the spontaneous shouting of “Pit Señor!” have become part and parcel of our Filipino culture, most especially the Visayas and Cebuano culture.

When Ferdinand Magellan landed at the Cebu port in 1521, up to the arrival of the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1565, the natives were found worshipping and praying to their anitos and personified idols with the aid of dull-staccato-like rhythmic sounds produced by musical instruments that accompanied their bodily jerks and what appeared to be their dances. When the first Catholic missionaries presented the image of the Sto. Niño to the natives, the latter leapt with joy and danced their best in front of the new-found idol, the Sto. Niño image.

One common sight of the festivity that is demonstrated during the procession or the fluvial parade during its early years are acts of jubilation as a group, a way of expressing spiritual homage to the Sto. Niño and an expression of their public faith in the Supreme Being represented by the diminutive image. Such acts of jubilation accentuated by public faith-homage have come to be known as “Sinulog” in Cebu, Ati-Atihan in Aklan, and “Dinagyang” in Iloilo.

We Filipinos are religious by nature. Our forebears worshipped and adored many idols. They went to the extent of practicing idolatry prior to the advent of the Catholic faith. Our ancestors gave divine attributes to the anitos.

Today, of course, Philosophy has become the handmaid of Theology. In our acts of worship and homage, we attribute Divine Power, not to the image of the Sto. Niño itself, but to the person it represents. Through the image, we worship the Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. We pay homage not to the idol, but to the one True God depicted by the idol.

On the coming Feast of the Sr. Santo Niño, we celebrate with joyful hearts and living faith the mystery of the childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The mystery of the childhood of Christ is a mystery of love. God became a child in flesh and blood in order to love and to be loved. The reciprocal feeling of love between Creator and creatures results to man’s happiness, and ultimately leads to man’s salvation. The invisible God has to become visible in order that man may comprehend the invisible. God has to be born in order to become a Niño. God has to be a Niño in order to be seen, and God has to be seen in order to be known. God has to be known in order to be loved, for man cannot love whom he does not see and does not know. There is always something in us that loves a little child. And what can be more lovable than the charming Sr. Sto. Niño?

To follow and comply with the wishes of the Sto. Niño us expressive of man’s love to Him. He wants to love Him because man is capable of loving his fellowmen. Before leaving for the abode of His Eternal Father, this Holy Child, now a grown-up Redeemer, entrust to us man’s greatest testament – “I give you my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

As we leap and dance the “Sinulog” and voice out our “Pit Senyor!” along the streets, and as we kneel down and sing our hymns of praise to the Sto. Niño, let us bear in mind that ours is indeed a Sinulog of Love.

Pit Senyor! (FREEMAN)