Friday, November 23, 2007 Serna: Happy birthday, Sun.Star By Roger Serna Sounds and Images
HAPPY 25th anniversary, Sun.Star Cebu! Yes. This paper will celebrate its 25th birthday on Sunday, Nov. 25. Many great things have happened since it first came out of the press 25 years ago and, I’m happy to note, that I have been part of Sun.Star’s growth all these years.
Why did I greet Sun.Star myself? Well, that’s my way of expressing my love, care and gratitude to the institution that has brought pride and honor to Cebu.
And, as the song goes: “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”
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The Carcar Heritage Conservation Society spearheads the Festival of Lights in Homage to Sta. Catalina de Alexandria tomorrow, Nov. 24, as part of the fiesta celebration of the new southern city.
If my memory serves me right, this is the second or third time that this activity has been held. This is the society’s way of propagating the devotion to the city’s patron saint.
For this activity, four carrozas depicting the saint’s martyrdom will form part of the solemn procession with no less than 120 student dancers wearing lantern headgears and carrying hand lights as escorts of the four carrozas.
Thus, the name “festival of lights.” It sure is a sight to behold. The following day, the Kabkaban Festival will take center stage. It will feature the different means of livelihood and delicacies of the new city in dance form.
Happy fiesta, Carcar City!
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What a spoiler typhoon Lando proved to be. It really caught Cebu flatfooted and it was able to wreck havoc in just a short span of time as it passed by the province.
Toppled down were trees, billboards and the giant Christmas tree at the Fuente Osmena rotunda, which was supposed to be officially lighted any day now to signal the coming of the Yuletide season.
The official light-up ceremony has to be moved indefinitely. Whew! But then, we cannot go against nor stand in the way of Mother Nature. As expected and as was proven in the past, Cebuanos immediately got up and moved on.
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Speaking of festivals, which abound in the province of Cebu, the southern town of Oslob will hold the Sadsad Festival on Dec. 8 as one of the cultural highlights of the annual fiesta celebration of the town’s patron saint, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.
To further enhance and improve the festival, which will turn 11 years old this year, the town officials led by Mayor Ronald Guaren invited the National Commission on Culture and the Arts to conduct a workshop last Nov. 14. It was attended by physical education teachers and the town’s homegrown choreographers.
Festival management, concept building, staging, costuming, developing a beat based on its jingle, pointing out the four basic steps and other topics were ably discussed by Ricky Ballesteros, Mdm. Dolly Suzara, Vince Escario, Victor Cuenco and Junjet Primor.
The provincial government, through the Culture and Heritage Council gave financial support to the workshop. Hopefully, a more coordinated and colorful Sadsad Festival will be seen come Dec. 8. Mag-sadsad na ta!
Oh, there was an attempt to change (or is it improve?) the name of the festival but objections were raised. The municipal officials are not in a hurry though as they’re willing to effect the change (once they’ll find a more appropriate or colorful name) next year yet.
Come to think of it, why change it when it has already developed recall? Why fix it when it ain’t broke, as the adage goes?
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Another big musical event comes to Cebu on Dec. 1. It’s the awaited concert of the group America, which popularized the songs A Horse With No Name, Ventura Highway, Sandman, You Can Do Magic, Inspector Mills and others (as if you still don’t know, huh!).
My favorite song of America though still remains to be All Around and I hope it will form part of the Dec. 1 repertoire. By the way, have you scored your tickets already?
