We were awakened from our slumber at Lylie Hotel by the nose from a Sinulog parade.
Wikipedia says:
The Sinulog is an annual festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City, Maasin City, Southern Leyte, and Balingasag, Misamis Oriental in the Philippines. The festival commemorates the Filipino people's pagan origin, and their acceptance of Roman Catholicism. The main feature is a street parade with participants in bright coloured costumes dancing to the rhythm of drums, trumpets and native gongs.
The word Sinulog comes from the Cebuano adverb sulog which roughly means "like water current movement;" it describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance. The dance consists of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of drums. The dance is categorized into Sinulog-base, Free-Interpretation, and street dancing. Candle vendors at the Basilica continue to perform the traditional version of the dance when lighting a candle for the customer, usually accompanied by songs in the native language.
The Sinulog dance steps are believed to originate from Rajah Humabon's adviser, Baladhay. It was during Humabon's grief when Baladhay was driven sick. Humabon ordered his native tribe to bring Baladhay into a room where the Santo Niño (child Jesus) was enthroned, along with the other pagan gods of the native Cebuanos. After a few days passed, Baladhay was heard shouting and was found dancing with utmost alertness. Baladhay was questioned as to why was he awake and shouting. Pointing to the image of the Santo Niño, Baladhay explained that he had found on top of him a small child trying to wake him and tickling him with the midrib of the coconut. Greatly astonished, he scared the child away by shouting. The little child got up and started making fun of Baladhay. In turn, Baladhay danced with the little child and explained that he was dancing the movements of the river. To this day, the two-steps forward, one-step backward movement is still used by Santo Niño devotees who believe that it was the Santo Niño's choice to have Baladhay dance. most Sinulog dances dramatize the coming of the Spaniards and the presentation of the Santo Niño to the Queen. A popular theme among Sinulog dances is Queen Juana holding the Santo Niño in her arms and using it to bless her people who are often afflicted by sickness caused by demons and other evil spirits
So says Wiki-pedia.
Yes, there were drums, trumpets, gongs and some sort of chanting as well. I observed in parades I saw in daylight that the dress was most colorful., However, I also observed the statue carried around looked rather demonic--definitely gave me the same feeling as animistic things I have experienced in my years with the SE Asians--I was saddened that the Catholic Church seemed to endorse the celebration and also saddened by so many tourists participating and supporting it (buying t-shirts, etc.) The Christian Filipinos I was around definitely avoided any involvement or proximity to such celebrating.
Anyway, our Sunday began early! It was another sunny, bright, warm day!! Brent came about 9 AM for us to hop a jeepney to church. This is New Life Community Church in Mandaue City, which wasn't far from Lylie Hotel (could have easily walked in 20 minutes) We were made most welcome. The music was loud, but good and enjoyed the sermon, too. The church has plans to begin--hopefully in May--the tear down of present building to build larger: first floor parking, 2nd floor office and classrooms, 3rd floor worship area. the property next door has the pastor's small home on it.
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| from the street one walks in a ways |
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| outside the front door |
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| peeking in at main room |
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| Pastor's home next door |
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| pretty chair covers |
We went for lunch at the mall and then back to Lylie Hotel for a brief rest time. At 2 PM we got in on a special time where women rescued out of sex trafficking and their children came for a program. Our men sang some kids' songs. The youth of New Life Community Church performed puppets with songs and then several youth did a choreographed dance. Liz shared her story and I shared (well, mostly my translator Katrina shared!) the wordless bracelet story for the children. That was great fun! THEN, the came the distribution of Christmas boxes for the 20 children. These were boxes not through Operation Christmas Child (Samaritan's Purse), but boxes sent specifically by one Oregon church for this church to distribute. The children were thrilled with pencils, paper, toothbrushes, tooth paste, combs, small toys and candy. Inspired us all to stuff our shoeboxes that we fill every November even fuller if possible!! and to try to fill even MORE shoeboxes!! No pictures were allowed of this time for the women's sake. Well, I tried to get one of the men singing and the youth doing their dance.
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| Thom, Dan, Stan, and Brian |
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| choreographed song |
We took a jeepney back to Lylie Hotel. Donna and I opted to have a quiet evening. Liz, Thom, Brian and Stan took off to the mall--they ended up not taking in a movie.
From Wikipedia:
The City of Mandaue , is a city in the province of Cebu in the Philippines. It is one of the three highly-urbanized cities on the island and forms a part of the Cebu Metropolitan area. Mandaue City is located on the middle eastern coastal region of Cebu, bordering to its right-side are Mactan Island where Lapu-Lapu City is located. Mandaue is connected to Mactan Island via two bridges which includes the Mactan-Cebu Bridge and Marcelo Fernan Bridge. The city has an area of 2,518 hectares (6,220 acres) with a total population of 331,320 people as of the 2010 census.
The Cebu International Airport is on Mactan Island, separated from Mandaue City by those two bridges in
the map.
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