The Official Website of the Sinulog Festival in Cebu City, Philippines

http://www.sinulog.ph/
As a Cebuana, tis sad but true that I've not attended the Sinulog festival for many years (living and working as I have been in Manila). I have had to fall back on the youthful memories of how the festival was THE EVENT to look forward to in the first month of each year.

From the site's write-up:
The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festivals in the Philippines with a very rich history.

The main festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Niño, or the child Jesus, who used to be the patron saint of the whole province of Cebu (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is essentially a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people’s pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity.

The festival features some the country’s most colorful displays of pomp and pageantry: participants garbed in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums, trumpets, and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. There is also a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.

Aside from the colorful and festive dancing, there is also the SME trade fair where Sinulog features Cebu export quality products and people around the world flock on the treasures that are Cebu.



Recently, the cultural event has been commercialized as a tourist attraction and instead of traditional street-dancing from locals, Sinulog also came to mean a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog Contest is traditionally held in the Cebu City Sports Complex, where most of Cebu’s major provincial events are held.

The image of the Santo Niño is the oldest religious image in the Philippines. The wooden image, made by Flemish artisans, was brought to the island by Fernao Magellan in 1521, just like the Magellan cross. Magellan gave the image Santo Niño to Queen Juana as a baptismal gift.

The Philippines is unique in Asia!

From a religious point of view, the Philippines is unique in the Asia, because it is the only country with a dominating Christian religion. In 2003 ninety percent of the Filipinos is Christian! A remarkable difference with Indonesia, where 95 percent of the people is Islamite. A great difference with other countries in the region too, for instance..Buddhism is dominating in countries like China and Thailand.