They came by land, air, and sea: A million Sto.Nino devotees

More than a million devotees took to the land, the air, and the sea to express a day-long devotion to the Santo Nino, the most powerful and awe-inspiring of all objects of religious devotion in this Cradle of Christianity in Asia.

The day broke with a fluvial procession bearing the images of the Santo Nino and the Virgin of Guadalupe ( see separate story on Page 2 ), a reenactment of the baptism of native ruler Humabon and his wife Juana, a series of Masses at the Santo Nino Basilica, and the traditional procession through the city, capped by a fireworks display.

Day-long drizzles failed to dampen the fervor of devotion to the Holy Child, regarded as the embodiment of the Christianization of the Philippines, being the earliest traceable object of the new faith introduced by the Spaniards nearly five hundred years ago.

The route of the procession was drastically shortened to about four kilometers instead of the usual circuitous passage through city streets, but the walk still took all of six hours to complete.

Despite a human chain of students linking arms to cordon off the entire route, surges of humanity in certain areas cannot be contained, squeezing the body of the procession to almost a standstill as the procession was not made up only of actual participants in the walk but perhaps even greater numbers just lining the streets waiting for hours just to see the miraculous icon pass by.

And when the Santo Nino passed by, a wave of emotions swept the crowds, moving people to both tears and exhilaration.

Chants of “ Pit Senyor “ rent the air and people waved with anything and everything, from just their bare hands, to candles, other icons, handkerchiefs, fans, and even little children.

Fr. Andrew Batayola, the rector of the basilica, said the number of devotees appears to have increased this year, perhaps doubling that of last year.

Monstrous traffic jams resulted from the closure of many streets to give way to the procession, but this was one time of the year that nobody seemed to mind. Those forced to walk because of the traffic standstill did so good-naturedly, many actually offering the inconvenience as a sacrifice in honor of the Holy Child.

More than 300 traffic enforcers were fielded to help ease and untangle traffic, which they did with great success that by 7 p.m. just after the procession, traffic went back to normal in most affected city streets.