Cari amici, voglio parlarvi oggi del Sinulog Festival, manifestazione religiosa che viene celebrata ogni anno in Cebu, in onore del patrono della città che è il Santo Nino ( il Bambino Gesù). La gente si sposta per le strade danzando. Due passi in avanti e uno indietro che ricorda il movimento del fiume e che festeggia l’avvento del Cristianesimo nel mio Paese con lo sbraco nel 1521 di Ferdinando Magellano. Adoro questa festa, colorata e gioiosa , simbolo della nostra spiritualità.
The Sinulog Festival is one of the grandest, most distinguished and most colorful festival in the Philippines. The festival held every year on third Sunday of January in Cebu City (Central Visayas Region) as a Thanksgiving event for the Santo Niño.
It is fundamentally a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people’s pagan past and their recognition of Christianity. Sinulog comes from the Cebuano dialect “sulog” which is “like water current movement” which proficiently describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance.
The Festival features some of the country’s most colorful displays of ceremony and pageantry: participants cloths in bright-colored costumes, dance to the rhythm of drums and native gongs. The streets are generally lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing.
This event is often used as foundation for most Sinulog dances, which presents coming of the Spaniards and the presentation of the Santo Niño to the Queen. A famous theme among Sinulog dances is Queen Juana (is Hara Amihan wife of Rajah Humabon a Cebuano) holding the Santo Niño in her arms and using it to bless her people who are often worried by sickness caused by demons and other evil spirits.
There is also Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.
This Festival has become a famous tourist and local attraction in Cebu City.
Its more fun in the Philippines.
