YOU don’t have to have sunny weather to enjoy the Sinulog, or you don’t even have to be in Cebu to witness the biggest festival of the island.
Log on to the Internet and find the Sun.Star website at www.sunstar.com.ph and you can be in Cebu where the festivities are expected to heat up, despite the rains, Sunday. A grand parade will be the culminating event for this year’s celebration of the fiesta of the Sto. Niño de Cebu.
Devotees have logged on to the website’s Sinulog special to exchange greetings.
A website visitor said, “I love and I miss the Sinulog. I was there with the drums and early morning parade since my four years in high school at USJ-R. Now, thanks to the Señor, I got some blessings. Hey guys, hope you will too. Be proud to be a Cebuano as I am and please try your best to maintain the good reputation of Cebu and hope our governor and mayor will unite for the sake of the majority.”
Reader Favian said, “My family is planning to go back to Cebu for the Sinulog next year. Just like any other Cebuano who is longing to visit Cebu for this special festivity, I am in awe.
I’m wondering, though, if all the balikbayans have a special spot, a place where they can stay during the parade--and if there is a social networking site on the Sinulog for Filipinos abroad.”
Ed, for his part, said, “The Sinulog Festival is a grand and most important celebration not only for Cebuanos but for Filipinos in general. For it is in Cebu where the early and initial roots of Christianity were planted and from there, sprouted to disperse all over the Philippines. The Sinulog festival should be a national celebration of yearly thanksgiving to God by the Filipino people for being divinely chosen to be a predominantly Catholic nation the world over.”
Reader Jaytie has some suggestions for the Sinulog Foundation and the Cebu City Government:
1. Like in Disney, the City should study a transport system that works to move passengers to/from different venues. The City can partner with private transport operators. There has to be ticket stations, planned routes and schedules.
2. No jeepneys or taxis should be allowed to enter zones where Sinulog activities are held. The City should find secure parking facilities.
3. The City should provide a uniform/mobile store instead of allowing vendors to build their own. The City can put designs on it. The vendors, of course, have to pay a higher rent but it will be a lucrative business opportunity for them.
4. Let the core committee go to Disneyland and benchmark how they run their entertainment facilities. There are lots of good ideas in Disney that can be applied to the Sinulog festival.
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Catch the live online coverage of the grand parade on the Sun.Star website at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/blogs/sinulog/.
Video streaming will come from two parade points: the University of San Carlos (USC) main campus along P. del Rosario St. and the grandstand at the Cebu City Sports Center. The Sun.Star website thanks the Sinulog Foundation and USC for the accommodation and Smart Communications Inc. for the Internet service.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)