Crowds getting bigger: Hope, joy fire up devotion to Sto. Niño

Yesterday, the "vesperas" of the feast of the Santo Nino, was a day of disappointment as it was a day of exhilaration and hope.

For the third year in a row, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal was not able to join the procession of the Holy Image around the streets of the old city. The same unspecified reason was cited - upon orders of his doctor.

But for the second year in a row, a rainbow appeared in the skies just as the early morning fluvial procession wound its way from Mandaue City to Cebu City in reenactment of the arrival of the Holy Image to Cebu from Spain more than 400 years ago.

Later in the day, during the street procession, a shorter route did not necessarily mean fewer people in attendance. According to police estimates, more people turned up for the highly emotional ritual, claiming hundreds of thousands actually walked the route while hundreds of thousands more lined up along the way.

As the Santo Nino, carried in a flower-bedecked ornate carriage, passed by those who lined the streets, the people invariably waved, some with their bare hands, others with handkerchiefs or whatever it was they happened to be holding. Some would drop to their knees while others would jump up and down.

Many would be clapping while almost all would be weeping, not knowing whether they weep in joy, in hope or in faith. The feeling is hard to fathom. But there is no mistaking that it seizes the individual like he has never been seized before. It leaves goose pimples on his skin.

Such is the strength of the devotion of the people in this the oldest city in the Philippines.

The original image was a gift of Ferdinand Magellan to the reigning king and queen of Cebu in 1521 for converting into Christianity. A later expedition by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565 discovered the image among the burnt ruins of the village following an encounter with the natives.

From that humble beginning sprung a devotion that has attracted people from all walks of life, both in the Philippines and abroad, some attracted by sheer faith, many others by the miracles attributed to the Holy Child's intercession.

The procession this year, though following a shorter route, still took nearly six hours to traverse the roughly four-kilometer distance from the Basilica del Santo Nino and back.

Among the other well-venerated icons that joined the procession were those of the Birhen sa Consolacion and of St. Joseph.

Some 30,000 student volunteers helped to cordon off the procession route while scores of soldiers provided security.

At the fluvial procession, more than a hundred seacraft both big and small joined as thousands stood on shorelines and on the waterfronts to watch it go by.

Prior to the procession, a Mass was celebrated at the National Shrine of St. Joseph Parish. From there, the images of the Santo Nino and the Virgin of Guadalupe were taken to the Ouano Wharf in Mandaue City and then on to the waiting vessels for the short ride to Cebu City.

No major incidents marred both activities, said Cebu City police chief Patrocinio Comendador.