VIVA PIT SENYOR! My Sinulog Festival Experience

Today, Sunday, January 16, 2022, marks the Sinulog Festival that is traditionally held on every third Sunday of January. This is a festival celebrated in honor of Santo Nino the baby Jesus. Cebu City is a religious city where there are lots of devotees praying for the saint. I grew up in a religious family, especially since both of my grandparents were very religious people and devotees of Senior Santo Nino. It has also been our family’s tradition to hold a novena before and on the day of the fiesta.

In today’s article, I will be sharing with you guys my Sinulog festival experiences.

Every Sinulog day, it has been one of our family’s traditions to visit the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu to light a candle.

We always go to the city the day before the festival because it will get too crowded and there will be too much traffic if we go there on the day of the festival. We have lots of relatives residing in the city, from Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue City, so it saves us some money because we will no longer be renting an apartment or a hotel room for us to stay in because we were just going to be staying with our relatives’ houses. We always made sure that before we visited other places and had some fun, we would always go to the church first and light up some candles and ask for guidance from the heavenly father. After that, we can go to different places and have fun wherever we want.

When you arrive at the heart of the city, the first thing that will surely catch your attention will be the colorful decorations everywhere. The day of the festival will also be the crazy day where they morning the night. The city is busy in the daytime and even more busy and alive at night. The last time I went to the city was in 2018. I wasn’t able to go with them because I was busy with my studies at that time. That’s why I chose to stay in my boarding house. But let’s talk about my past Sinulog experiences.

The first time that I went with my cousin was when I was just a kid, I was just a 13-year-old at the time, and it was my first time going with my cousin to join the float parade and see some celebrities. You know what a kid would feel like if they saw their favourite celebrity. I was a very tiny kiddo so my sister would always hold my hand so that I wouldn’t get lost. I was not expecting the number of people that I saw when we arrived at the Fuente Osmena. There was literally no space and it was too crowded. There were people everywhere and the space became too tight to the point that I could no longer breathe properly. I began to panic because I felt that my chest had become too tight and then there was a stampede. I literally cried that time, and my cousin and sister brought me to the mall. I thought to myself at that time that it would be the first time, and probably the last time that I would go with them. LOL. But it didn’t happen.

I was traumatized by that experience, but I will still go with them to the next Sinulog festival. LOL.

This time, I became more aware of my surroundings as I became more mature. This is the time where I literally had fun and enjoyed the festival. At day time, we no longer watch the parade; we just stroll around the city and watch different exhibits and other entertaining stuff. We didn’t notice how far we had already walked because it’s too difficult for you to ride a jeepney because the streets are crowded and only a few can pass by. At night, we stayed at the Fuente Osmena circle and ate some barbeque. There was a live band with some of the famous artists and bands in the Philippines. The performers were Bamboo, Itchy Worms, Spongecola, Kamikaze, and others. It was a night of fun for us because of the loud music that people were vibing to. We were at the very front of the stage to the point that we could literally touch their feet haha. When Yael from Sponge Cola came in, the crowd went crazy, and so did we. All of our tiredness was totally gone after that night. We didn’t even feel numb on our feet or in our bodies as if we hadn’t walked a few kilometers.

But after the fun day came the no transportation day. The day after the festival was the day most of the people returned to their provinces, and if you wanted to travel that day, expect that you either couldn’t have a seat on the bus or it would take you till evening before you could get on the bus or in a van.

When we went to the bus station, there were lots of people around, and the ticket line was so long that it even went to the outside. We still hadn’t gotten our tickets at that time, but we still checked out if there were many buses around. When we saw the one bus arriving, we were totally shocked as to how the people standing in the waiting area ran towards the bus even if the bus hadn’t parked in the right place. People have literally gone insane, as we saw some people climbing up the bus window just to get in and take a seat. They all looked like they were in a movie. They were like zombies hunting their prey, which was inside the bus. What made us worried was that the bus got overloaded and there were even kids inside. After we witnessed that scene, we decided to go back to the house of our uncle and decided to travel the next day.

The next day was a very peaceful day, and there were only a few people left in the bus station, and some of those people were also from our neighboring provinces. If only those people could wait a little longer, they wouldn’t be struggling inside a bus and could even have a safe travel experience without getting worried. 

It was still a fun experience as we all enjoyed it. The last Sinulog was only held virtually because of the pandemic. I hope everything will be back to normal and back to the happy Sinulog day.

Jini's Note:

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