Hello everyone!

I know this has been long overdue, but I still feel the need to post this since I promised that I will blog about the whole celebration of our school's fiesta celebration in detail. I already posted the video of the Sinulog Dance Presentation of Canduman NHS Teachers. And I was glad that many have noticed it and showed appreciation. So, without further ado, allow me to share the entirety of the celebration in my perspective...

The Reason of Our Celebration

Our school, Canduman National High School, celebrates annually our School Fiesta in honor of Senior Sto. Niño every January. This is our way to show our gratitude and praise to the Child Jesus for all the things that He has done and He continues to do for our school, faculty and staffs, students and stakeholders. There will be novena masses or vigils, sinulog dance presentations from students and teachers, and of course eating!

In this blog, I would like to share and talk about the whole celebration including the preparations such as the decorations, dance practices and actual presentations. So, without further ado… let’s get into it!

The Banderitas!

In every fiesta celebration, there are always colorful banderitas hanging in the venue. Banderitas are small banners cut into triangles hanging in a festive area. For me, these banderitas hype-up the celebration because they are very colorful and they dance with the wind. Since, we are honoring the Senior Sto. Niño de Cebu, the banderitas are in red and yellow.

The photos above show the different shots of the yellow and red banderitas. The first photo was taken around 5:30 AM when we arrived in the school. The second one, was taken when I was in the school gym, and the last one was taken from the lobby of my classroom on the 3rd floor.

The Sinulog Dance Practices

The celebration of our fiesta will never be complete without the Sinulog dance presentations. Thus, students, teachers and staff, prepared a sinulog dance number to be presented on the feast day. Even if the quarterly examinations for the second quarter was approaching, we made sure that we make time to practice and rehearse.

Growing as a Catholic, I learned that Sinulog is a form of prayer through chanting and dancing at the same time. I learned further that prayers become more effective if there is more effort in it, like doing the sinulog. The idea is the same when a boy courts a woman, the boy who gives more effort will most likely get the approval of the girl.

As mentioned above, it is not only the teachers who would be presenting on the day of the fiesta. So, students also tried to find time to practice. Every grade level were tasked to dance Sinulog. A teacher coach was assigned per grade level to look after and guide them during practices. I was impressed to those students who managed their academics and dancing at the same time, especially because the 2nd Quarter Assessment was also approaching. In fact, the Periodical Test was two days before the feast day.

The Stage Decorations

Teachers are very innovative and creative so designing and decorating the stage for the festivity is not difficult. Sir Recla was incharge of the whole stage decoration including the flower arrangement and all. Mr Vega worked on the electrical connections needed. The decorations were not very grand because of the limited budget but because of the creativity of the teachers, they were able to make it very eye-pleasing and have that festive vibe.

The Novena Vigils

Our school also managed to hold nine novena vigils. It was only a vigil because it was presided only by lay ministers. To avoid disruption of classes and minimize the noise in the school gym while there was a vigil, the organizers assigned only few classes/students to attend and participate in the vigil.

Feast Day

Our principal suspended the classes for one day to give way to the celebration of the feast. The highlights of the celebration were the following:

The Fiesta Mass
The Banquet
The Sinulog Dance Presentations

I was on my best mood during the feast day. I was basically excited for the food and dancing. My apology that I included this in this post, I don't think it is necessary though.

Anyway, our fiesta celebration started with a Holy Mass presided by the parish priest of Nativity of Mary Parish, Canduman, Mandaue City. It was attended by teachers, some students, and stakeholders.

The chairs and tables were in a banquet set-up because after the Holy Mass, it would be the time for us to partake the food we ordered from a catering services. Of course, we needed to shell out 350 PHP per head. It was a bit pricy because our principal invited special guests to attend the celebration... Well, I was just being hypothetical.

Right after the Holy Mass since it was not yet twelve o'clock, our principal and some retired teachers, danced Sinulog. Each one of them was holding their Sto. Niño. The teachers from the back joined them in their dancing.

When the dancing was done, we sat back to our chairs to rest. Of course, it was also the time for us to take pictures. So, here are the my circle in my workplace...

By the way, I already changed my t-shirt before the holy mass started because I thought that the sequence would be holy mass, lunch, then teachers sinulog dance, and the last would be the students' dance presentation. So, I made sure I was already wearing our simple costume or dance uniform.

After maybe ten minutes, the catering services finished setting up the buffet. The lechon was also displayed in another table, so it was the time for eating!

Our table was situated closest to the buffet so when the emcee announced that it was time for eating, I was the first person in the line. 😀 Sorry, I was really starving already. I only drank milk for breakfast. In fact, I was not able to take pictures of the food, but I remember that aside from the lechon, there were also beef steak, fish fillet, chopsuey, buttered chicken, lasagna, caldereta, fruits, sweets and refreshments.

Here's our simple costume and props for our Sinulog dance. It was just a printed dri-fit shirt with the image of the Child Jesus we bought for 150PHP, black pants, white sneakers, these two prop candles made of folders, bond papers and construction papers, and the Sinulog headband.

After lunch time, people (mostly students) were crowding the school gym, and student dancers were seen wearing their festive costumes. And at exactly 1 PM the emcee started her spiels that the Sinulog Dance presentations would start.

Grade 7

_{Grade 7 students looked ver cute and ready to offer a dance presentation in honor of Snr. Sto Niño and to entertained the audience!}

_{The costume of the festival queen was the color of the feast - Golden Yellow! The dancers were wearing an ethnic costume whick I liked very much!}

_{They were following instructions to line up and prepare for their presentation!}

_{And here they went! They danced and danced and danced!}

_{Surely their teacher coach were very proud of them.}

_{Well done, Grade 7!}

Grade 8

_{The G8 dancers were already preparing at the back while the G7 were dancing because they were the next presentors after them.}

_{They immediately went to their positions based from their practices and blockings.}

_{They looked very colorful! If you look closely, a lot of the dancers in this photo wore their smiles.}

_{The people cheered loudly when the festival queen started to dance. She was very confident and smiling.}

_{People would loudly declare their amuzement when the festival queen would gracefully and strategically bend her body down while raising the Sto. Niño.}

Grade 10

_{Sir Maningo never missed the chance to have a picture of his students. And that's very understandable because I think they have the best costumes!}

_{This is not yet their actual performace, the dancers were just doing some final blockings and reviewed their steps.}

_{Finally, they were called to proceed to the gym for their presentation.}

_{Their first formation was forming two circles while the festival queen was in the center}

_{Among all the presentors, it was only the Grade 10 who perfomed their dance facing the crowd. Others were facing the stage where the teachers were.}

_{They looked so expensive and elegant in this photo. And I like that I was able to capture the smile of the festival queen here.}

Grade 11 and 12

_{At first I did not expect these students to be the next presentors because they were not wearing a costume. But, I was wrong because they had a special role in the presentation.}

_{Before dancing, the Senior High School students made a short drama which is very common to Sinulog presentations!}

_{So, the scenarios above depicted that people were in a difficult situation. The festival queen bringing the Sto. Niño, symbolizes the intervention of God in our lives.}

_{The festival queen of the SHS was simply pretty. I was glad I was able to capture this!}

_{Then the Sinulog dance presentation for the SHS started.}

_{It was a beautiful presentation coming from the senior high school students!}

I was not able to capture the presentation of the Grade 9 students because we were instructed to line up already for our dance presentation. But, for sure it was a very colorful and impressive performance.

My Self- Reflections

_{1. Our faith is very powerful. It moves and inspires us. I think our faith to God is more important than our religion.}

_{2. We have so many various way to show our faith in God. For this one, through dancing and giving honor by celebrating the feast day. We should respect everyone how they choose to profess and proclaim their faith.}

_{3. Life is colorful. Those who truly live their life can feel gratitude, genuine happiness, and love.}

That would be all for now! Thank you for reading! Cheers!
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OUR SCHOOL’S FIESTA CELEBRATION : VIVA PIT SENYOR!