A Celebration of Faith

We’re hearing the drumbeats once again. And we’re having the usual traffic jams on the streets that have not been closed for the occasion. Visitors and fun-seeking locals are flocking in one direction. All roads lead to Sinulog today!

Sinulog is quite an attraction. It is touted as the biggest fiesta of the Philippines, or perhaps of the whole of Asia. Throngs of tourists come year after year to join in or witness the celebrations.

There are, however, opposing views to this dazzling pageantry. Some people are not as excited about it. To them, Sinulog is nothing but flashy revelry, costing huge money that would have been better spent on more necessary endeavors.

Others are quick to counter such disapproval by enumerating the benefits that Sinulog brings. It is a cultural pride, they say; it boosts tourism in the city, bringing in much more money than what is spent on the event. And it is, they add, a celebration of faith.  

There’s no doubt about the Sinulog parade being a good venue for showing off the artistic talents of participants. And the value of exposure in an event with such crowd-drawing power motivates sponsors to invest in a contingent. These are certainly some of the reasons to explain why the event draws such wide participation.

Spectators are drawn to Sinulog in multitudes many, many times the number of the already innumerable parade participants. People don’t mind all the inconvenience and discomfort just to be able to see the fabulous show. The Sinulog parade is always a spectacle to see.

Given the great numbers of people that come for Sinulog, businesses in the city sizzle. Hotels, restaurants and stores overflow with customers. Even small-time ambulant sidewalk vendors hail the event as a big boon to their trade.

“But faith! What faith?” a non-Catholic Christian friend of mine howled. He condemned, among other things about Sinulog, the dancing in the streets as pagan practice and never Christian.

I pointed out to him the dancing that often goes with the singing during prayer-and-worship sessions at their church, to which he had brought me several times.  “Isn’t it the same thing?” I asked earnestly.

“Of course not!” he snapped at me. “We do our worship in the right place. And in a dignified way!”

My friend reads the Bible from cover to cover every year. I trust that he’s very knowledgeable regarding proper Christian ways, while I am myself an eternal greenhorn on Biblical teachings.

I grew up believing that faith or worship is a very personal matter. That, ultimately, it’s between the individual and his God. That anything can be faithful worship so long as it is sincerely intended to be. But how could I be so sure, when I do not even bother to read the Bible often enough?    

My former Catechism teacher, back in grade school, has made a pledge of dancing the Sinulog every year, during the Fiesta Señor. She promised to do it for as long as her body could manage. The lady is now over 80 years old and lives in Mindanao. She is presently in town, accompanied by her teenage grandson, to once again do as she promised.  

“I don’t know with the others,” she told me, “but this thing works for me.” She said that looking forward to the Fiesta Señor gives a sense of purpose to her days the whole year round. The anticipation also seems to keep her body in good health. These are, at least, the practical benefits.

“But most of all, it brings me closer to God,” the old lady asserted. “I can almost hear Him whisper to me when I’m dancing.”

Today, as in the past 50 years or so, she is doing her dancing at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño. But she hopes to be able to join the Sinulog parade, too. “I’ve been wanting to do it there because it’s a bigger sacrifice,” she says.

It will be quite a sacrifice, indeed, for an octogenarian to dance her way through the several kilometers of the Sinulog parade route. It will be a real feat if she can do it. While it may not be advisable for anyone her age to do such strenuous activity, who can stop an old lady who firmly believes that her daring is going to secure her place in God’s grace?   

Given how grand the Sinulog parade has evolved through the years, many still question whether the yearly event is a true manifestation of faith or simply cultural tradition. I have seen people watch the colorful parade in what looks to me like pious concentration. But awe, no matter how transcendent, is not a guarantee of spiritual connection.

Certain people are easily enthralled by just about anything. There is, also, the spellbinding effect of the continuous drumbeats and of being amid an immense crowd. The rhythmic sound and the body-to-body company of fellow humans, as many of us may have experienced at one time or another, can bring about a kind of trance.

So, really, what’s the true value of Sinulog? Why are we doing it? I won’t risk say. My answer may only turn off some of my readers.