WHO would have thought the replica image of the Holy Child Jesus, the Santo Niño de Cebu in Iloilo has a name?
He is Mr. Niño de San Jose, age 52, and was born on December 17, 1967.
Father Raymund Edsel Alcayaga, parish priest of San Jose Parish Placer, home of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu in Iloilo, the image of the Holy Child Jesus was already 53 years old when it was made in Cebu in 1967.
Then it was in 1968 that the replica of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu was brought to Iloilo City by Father Sulpicio Enderes, OSA and delegation of Confradia del Santo Niño de Cebu to have its home.
San Jose Parish priest Father Ambrosio Galindez, OSA., with Iloilo City Mayor Reneirio Ticao and Catholic devotees welcome the image at the old Iloilo Airport in Mandurriao.
The image was then welcomed by simple merrymaking which later evolved into what is called now Dinagyang.
Every first or second week of January of the year, the replica of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu in Iloilo City is brought to Cebu City for a change of vestment that is being done for the past 51 years.
The Gullas family donates the Santo Niño’s new vestment every year. In 1968, it was Vicente and Josefina Gullas who donated the replica image of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu to San Jose Parish Church.
So why Mr. Niño de San Jose?
When the replica of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu travels to Cebu through an airline, the image is given a ticket and a seat just like other airline passengers.
Father Alcayaga said when he books for a ticket, so the image must occupy a seat, it is under the name Mr. Niño de San Jose (adult), 52 years old with a birth date of December 17, 1967.
Father Alcayaga said the image’s airline fare costs same as the people that accompanied the image to Cebu for change of vestment and back to Iloilo City for feast celebration.
Airline ticket shows recent ticket fare for P6,624 for three seats, including the image of Santo Niño, from Cebu to Iloilo.
The image together with Ma Carmelita Astorga and Maria Flor Muralla went to Cebu last January 4 and came back to Iloilo on January 7 which signals the start of the Dinagyang month celebration in honor of Señor Santo Niño.
The Dinagyang 2020 that includes revelry and fiesta in honor of the image of the Holy Child Jesus, the Santo Niño, is the most celebrated feast by the Roman Catholics during January.
The feast day of Señor Santo Niño in Iloilo City on January 26, 2020, the highlight of Dinagyang 2020.
On January 18, there will be a “Kasanag Niño” at 7 p.m. where 5,000 candles will be light up outside the San Jose Church that will form an image of Santo Niño.
On January 24, there will be a Fluvial Procession and Solemn Foot Procession at 3 p.m. followed by a mass and blessing of Santo Niño images, children and pregnant mothers.
On January 25, there will be a grand religious “sad-sad” in front of San Jose Chuch at 7 p.m.
On January 25, the feast day of Señor Santo Niño there will be a concelebrated high mass at San Jose Parish at 6 a.m. before the start of the Dinagyang 2020 tribe 360 degree competition.
From Sinulog in Cebu to Ati-atihan in Aklan and Dinagyang in Iloilo, all of these festivals in the Visayas carry a replica of the image of Santo Niño de Cebu originally given a gift from Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan to Rajah Humabon in 1521. (SunStar Philippines)