Traffic has been unusually heavy this time of the month and community centers like malls, churches, and plazas are abuzz with activity, all signs that indeed Cebu is on fiesta mode.
Amid stirrings in social and mainstream media about the exclusive contracts related to fund-raising efforts to support the Sinulog celebration, nothing so far can dampen the festival mood. Cebuano faithful and pilgrims from other provinces remain focused on the center of the celebration: Their faith and devotion to the Holy Child Jesus.
In this fiesta season, we look for places and events where such faith is felt. And I hope that after the festivities have ended, organizers and the entire community will take time to assess where we have fallen short in becoming one and whole with the essence of this faithful celebration.
May we seek to understand where each is coming from and how it came about that controversial decisions were made. I intentionally left the details out in respect to this weekend’s festivities and religious activities.
But I must say that in our sincere efforts to achieve certain goals like coming up with the funds and logistics to make the celebration stunningly successful, we sometimes lose sight of the essence of the celebration – which is, in the case of the Sinulog, the collective raising and waving of our hands, the rhythm of our dance, conveyed as one devoted and faithful community invoking the Holy Child’s mercy and protection, and expressing our joy and thanksgiving.
Talking about places and events where our devotion and faith to the Holy Child are felt, yesterday dawn over 200,000 devotees (police said it might have reached 300,000) attended the “Walk with Mary,” according to an online report by The FREEMAN.
In the morning, the Traslacion passed by our place in Banilad where neighbors and employees of shops along the route stood by the sidewalk to witness the pilgrim image of the Señor Santo Niño and the Birhen sa Guadalupe pass by as the convoy travelled toward the National Shrine of St. Joseph in Mandaue City. I was just monitoring the event on the radio, half-awake after sleeping late the night before due to work commitments.
Such manifestations of enduring faith are what we look for in this celebration. In the event last Tuesday at Palm Grass the Cebu Heritage Hotel, entitled “Retracing Sinulog: A forum on the precolonial roots of the Sinulog dance,” themes of unity and healing were discussed in the context of the traditional rift between Moros and Christians.
My good friend Max Limpag of MyCebu.ph wrote a stirring article about what were discussed during the forum that was graced by Cebu historian and Anthropology professor from the University of San Carlos Dr. Jobers Bersales, and University of the Philippines Islamic Studies professor Darwin Absari.
Quoting from the discussion of professors Bersales and Absari, Max wrote that the Sulu roots of the Sinulog dance “offers an opportunity to start the healing process of the rift between Moros and Christians started by the Spaniards to divide the people in the country.” Faith and healing, that’s a good combination.
May faith also continue to reside in our hearts as expressed in this stanza from a popular song in Cebu during Sinulog season, “Batobalani sa Gugma” or the Gozos: “Nangayo kami kanimo nga ang matahum mong larawan, sa sulud sa kalag namo makahimog puluyanan, kay sa tanang kinahanglan ikaw ang among dalangpan.” (We ask you, that your glorious image may find shelter in our souls, because it is you whom we seek for all our needs.)
According to “The Hermeneutics of the Gozos for Señor Santo Niño de Cebu” published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research” in 2016, the verse speaks of “an integral process of worship and praise of the Santo Niño in the lives of the Cebuanos – as a source of guidance and protection, and spiritual sustenance as repeated in the tubag (response), “Kanamo malooy Ka unta, nga Kanimo nangilaba” (That You give us mercy, in You we implore). This is a way of showing how Cebuano people are imploring the divine protection of the Holy Child Jesus, with the waving of hands as the most significant gesture of faith and spiritual devotion.”
Wherever you will be and however you choose to celebrate the Sinulog festivities today and tomorrow, may it never be felt and said “that Faith has left the building.” Pit Senyor!