Hello Hello Hello Everyone here in the Hive Community! How’s everyone? Hope you’re all doing fine and great! Before I share our little journey to Cebu, I want you all to smile before reading my post. For today I’ll be sharing our Sinulog experience, though I think its already late since it happened on the 15th of January last month, but then as they say that better late than never hahaha.
I think some of you already witnessed and experience the biggest festival in Cebu which is the Sinulog Festival. All the people in Cebu celebrate Sinulog every year, but it was suspended for a year due to the Pandemic. All the cities, barangay and provinces from all around the corner of Cebu celebrate it since it’s the grandest festival in the Central Visayas.
We celebrated the 458th Fiesta of the Sinulog Festival has been celebrated last January of 2023. We yearly celebrate and join the parade. Sinulog Festival is for everyone, many tourist from all over the world save their date and booked their flight just to come to the biggest festival in the Central Visayas.
The Sinulog Festival is one of the most celebrated festival in the Philippines celebrated every January of the year. Before the festival, there is always a 9 days of Novena Mass inside the Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino Church. We also visited the church few times before the festival. Before the grandest parade, they do have lots of activities like the street dancing competition, the pageant in search for the new festival queen, they also do have the Sinulog sa Kabataan, they offer different awards for the contingents, like the best in costume, best in Ritual dance and many more.
For this year there where 70 contingents who participated the Sinulog Festival, with 40 floats, 6 puppeteers and 8 higantes (parade giants). The parade mostly started at 9 in the morning and end up until the street dance is complete. The Sinulog Festival location was always at in the Fuente Circle, it became the traditional place to celebrate Sinulog but this year it was celebrated at the SRP World Tent. Honestly a lot of residents in Cebu were shocked and didn’t agree to the decision of the new location, but the reason for the change in location is to develop new place tradition. The people in the community built and develop the new location which is in SRP to make it more convenient to all the people of Cebu and as well as the tourists.
We came there in the new location by 6 in the morning for us to get a spot to where we should stay and get a good look for the street dancing parade. As expected when we got there, there where a lot of people already. Some tourist and travelers booked a hotel room near the SRP so that they can have easy access. Most of the family brought their own chairs and even tables for them to eat during lunch time though it also has lots of food stalls and a medic or rescue team all around the location. They also provided several tents for the people incase the weather might be bad.
We had experienced Sinulog festival several times already the reason we already know what we need to do or what are the routine that we should accomplish before, during and after the festival. We had witnessed different floats with their elegant and glamorous designs, different giant puppets, and one of the most awaited part of the Cebuano is to see their celebrity idols. Many celebrities also visited and joined the Sinulog Festival, Richard Gutierez and the rest of the cast of their new primetime teleserye “The Iron Heart” was there, also Jericho Rosales, Sue Ramirez, the son of Gary Valenciano which is Gab Valenciano and many many more.
But my most favorite event was the street dancing showdown from the contingents from the different barangays of Cebu. I was so stunned and amazed by their handmade costumes, their determination and passion in dancing. Just imagine dancing under the sun with their costumes, some wore heavy and complicated costumes but they still make it look just as fine as the way they dance, I really love seeing their smile in their faces and the most cute is their facial expression that makes the tourist smile and laugh, it truly gives the positive vibes even in the hot weather.
The omega de Salonera of Surigao del Norte won the Best in Ritual Showdown (Free Interpretation) they won a 1 million peso Cash Prize! They also won the Best in Costume (Free Interpretation) Award, there’s more on that because they also won the top prize for the Street Dancing Competition and they got the 2nd place for the Best in Musicality Award.
For the Sinulog Based, the Inayawan Talent Guild and Cultural Group of Barangay Inayawan got the spot and also won the the Best in Costume for Sinulog based.
Hope you can all joined and witnessed the biggest and grandest Festival in the Central Visayas next year!
Hope you enjoyed this year’s Sinulog Festival
Always take care and just smile
Love, from zel-diaries💜🌻