Colorful and Magnificent Festivals in Cebu

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MAGNIFICENT FESTIVALS

People in Cebu love to celebrate festivals or are fiesta-loving people. Cebu has one of the most colorful and world-renowned festivals in the Philippines and they celebrate it with excitement and high spirits. Cebu celebrates different festivals in different towns and cities. Cebu celebrate fiestas with religious rituals and dancing in the streets to the beat of the drums. Read More: http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/events_festivals/cebu_festival.htm

Sinulog Festival

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The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest, most distinguished and most colorful festivals in the Philippines. The major 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 fundamentally a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people’s pagan past and their recognition of Christianity.

The festival features some the country’s most colorful displays of ceremony and pageantry: participants clothe 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. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in different 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.

The celebration traditionally lasts for nine days, ending on the ninth day when the Sinulog Grand Parade reveals. The day before the parade, the Fluvial Procession, a water-parade, held at dawn from the Mandaue City wharf to Cebu City wharf with the Santo Niño carried on a pump boat decorated with hundreds of flowers and candles. The procession ends at the Basilica where a re-enactment of the Christianizing of Cebu follows. In the afternoon, a more formal procession takes place along the major streets of the city, which last for hours due to large crowd participating in the religious event. Read More: http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/sinulog_festival.html

Tagbo Festival

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One of the festivals celebrated in the Camotes Islands is the Tagbo Festival. The festival is celebrated in the month of January and is held in honor of the patron of the town of Poro, the Santo Niño. While the Sinulog may be considered as the grandest festival honoring the Santo Niño, the Tagbo Festival of Poro in Camotes is equally colorful albeit on a smaller scale.

The Tagbo Festival in Poro also commemorates the foundation of the town. The term “tagbo” is a Visayan word that means “to meet or to converge.” It celebrates the time when Poro was recognized as the first town on the island of Poro in 1780. The story behind the “tagbo” revolves around the meeting of two tribes, the farmers who came from sitio Tag-anito and the fishermen from sitio Mactang. Sitio Tag-anito is now the town of Tudela while sitio Mactang is now one of the barangays of Poro, Barangay Esperanza. Read More: http://www.peanutbrowas.com/blog/celebrating-unity-at-the-tagbo-festival

Silmugi Festival

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Silmugi Festival is a celebration to honor the patron saint, St. Sebastian Martyr. The highlight of this event is the street dancing which involves a traditional prayer for a bountiful harvest and various barangays take part.

“Silmugi” is an old name of the town of Borbon during the pre-Spanish period. It was so named after the river which was served as the nearest route for Catholics attending mass in Saint Sebastian. The river has also become the main gateway for locals who lived in the hillsides of Borbon to conduct their business trade with coastal barangays surrounding it. Read More: http://philippinestravelsite.com/january-festivals-philippines/