Sinug dance for miracle

CEBU, Philippines - Ninety-three-year-old Charito Polgo Pelone is just one of the privileged few and firsthand witnesses to the miracles of the Holy Child being a “Sinug dancer” and candle vendor at the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino.

Pelone said people from all walks of life would ask her to pray for their success in work, for them to be healed from sickness, among others.

“Ang ilang pangayoon sa Señor Sto. Niño kanang maayo sa ilahang panglawas, kanang mahatagan sila og mga kaayohan ug mga grasya. Mao na ilahang ipa ampo sa amoa,” said Pelone.

Characterized by a “two-step-forward-and-one-step-backward” ritual dance that mimic the water current, the Sinug is a way of praying to the miraculous image of Señor Sto. Niño.

Believed to have been adapted from pagan rituals, the Sinug dance later on became Cebu’s famous tourist attraction following the institutionalization of the Sinulog Festival. The festival is held every third Sunday of January.

The lines on her face could very well represent each story of answered prayers of her numerous “suki” who finds her at a corner of the Basilica grounds. She is known to her patrons and colleagues as Nang Charing.

Like the lines on her face, she quipped she could no longer count the many answered prayers from the petitions of devotees who asked for her Sinug dance. At 93, Pelone did not show any signs of frailty.

“Ingon ana man gyud na dong kung kanang malipayon ka ug walay problema,” Pelone told The Freeman.

A devotee of Sto. Niño herself, Pelone commutes 10 kilometers from her home in Consolacion to the Basilica in Cebu City every Thursday and Friday Novena masses and on Sundays. She sells candles and offer Sinug for those who ask for petitions on those days.

Every time a prayer is answered, the devotee comes back to look for her and inform her of the miracle. She remembered a devotee asking the miraculous image for healing from cancer.

Born in the southern town of Dumanjug, Pelone is not actually one of the veteran candle vendors at the Basilica as she started to do the Sinug only two years ago. Earnings are not that bad. She earns about P400 to P500 a day. Her tiny red candles cost P1 each with free Sinug dance.

Pelone admitted that during the Fiesta Senyor she earns much bigger compared to ordinary days because thousands of devotees attend the nine-day Novena Masses. These devotees have a particular petition or thanksgiving stories of their own.

The bad weather during and after tropical depression Auring did not stop devotees from attending Novena Masses.

Rains have been on and off around Cebu every day since Sunday but the Pilgrim Center is filled with devotees every Novena Mass. Devotees usually bring with them replicas of the miraculous image. (FREEMAN)