Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Editorial: P.S. to Sunday's celebration
THE feast of the Sto. Niño is an annual ritual, thus the tendency of the activities attached to it to become monotonous is always present, though the mind does play tricks.
Recollection of previous celebrations wanes through time, making it easy for the most recent activities to ease out memories of the old ones, thus the constant enjoyment.
People tend to forget, for example, that every year, Sinulog organizers assess the festivities as being the “biggest and the best” to the point of making the phrase a cliché.
Pat on the back
Common sense will tell us that Sinulog activities cannot be the “biggest and best” every year because of fluctuation in levels, aside from assessments being subjective.
Nobody is keeping track, for example, of the actual attendance figures.
In the end, what matters for rituals is their successful holding, especially in the case of the feast of the Sto. Niño whose foundation is the activity at the Basilica.
In this context, Sinulog organizers and Basilica priests deserve a pat on the back.
Repeated flaws
Having said that, however, it would be good to ask the same Sinulog organizers and Basilica priests not to be trapped in the repetitive mindset that rituals evoke.
It is easy to be ningas cogon, like promising to act on problems that crop up during the celebration and then loosening up months after or until the next fiesta approaches.
In the Sinulog grand parade, for example, organizers repeat the same crowd control mistake yearly, which is to use people to fence off the contingents in the streets.
The result? The same breakdown in crowd control is also repeated yearly.
Ideas like the use of moveable iron railings, especially in parade route points where the crowd is usually thick, like in Osmeña Blvd., always get lost in the shuffling.
Inadequate space
It has become obvious too, that despite the improvements put up in the Basilica, accommodating the surge of people during major fiesta activities has become a problem.
While sacrifice has always been the hallmark of the pilgrims’ devotion to the Child Jesus, that does not mean solutions to the problem should not be looked into now.
Danger always lurks in areas where people are fighting for space.
