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Philippines is known to have many festivities and celebrations every month of the year. One of its grandest and most colorful festivals is the Sinulog festival.

It is usually held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City in honor of Sto. Niño or the child Jesus who is the patron saint of Cebu. It is celebrated through a dance ritual which commemorates the Filipinos’ pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity. There are many participants in the festival dressed with colorful costumes that dance to a beautiful rhythm of drums, trumpets, and native gongs.

Sinulog festival lasts for nine days and it is on the ninth day when the Sinulog Grand Parade begins. During the feast day, a Pontifical Mass celebrated by the Cardinal with the assistance of some bishops of Cebu at the Basilica. Sinulog comes from the Cebuano language which means “like water current movement” which describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance.

sinulog, philippines, festival