CEBU CITY MAYOR TOMAS OSMEÑA considered last year’s Sinulog festivities as the most memorable after he enforced a ban on the use of alcohol and the holding of street parties within 300 meters of the grand parade route. The idea was to bring solemnity back to an event that is based on the annual feast of the Child Jesus.
But it was not the only change that was introduced to right the path of an event that some conservatives feel already got crooked.
The Sinulog dance presentations during the grand parade got so elaborate and competitive the cost of forming a contingent, including the expenses for the needed costumes and props, has gone sky high. The purity of the original Sinulog dance has also been muddled by the cultural influences of out-of-town contingents especially from Mindanao.
The attempt to right the presentations includes putting limits to the size of the props and thus pulling down the contingents’ expenses. It may also be good to review the categories imposed in the competition and give more premium to the Sinulog-based than on the free interpretation category.
What we are saying is that 39 years after the first Sinulog Grand Parade was organized by David Odilao Jr, it might be time to put the festivities to an overall review by experts and the religious to find out what needs to be corrected and improved. It would be wrong for only one man or for only a limited group of people to come up with changes based on impulse. Changes must be well-studied.
Thirty-nine years is already a long time to sum up the Sinulog experience. A gathering of experts and the religious can already gather a mountain of data on various aspects of the festivity that they can study. A number of lessons can be had, including how the Sinulog festivities have complemented the purely religious celebration at the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño.
No question that the Sinulog has gone bigger than what Odilao and the other original initiators of the festivities have envisioned. But just because the festivities have gone big does not mean we have to forget the Sinulog’s original vision.