The Dance of Piety
It’s Sinulog time once again. The city is beginning to vibrate from the beats of festival sounds and the thumps of dancing feet. Drumbeats permeate the air, inviting everyone to the merry celebration.
Sinulog is a major attraction indeed. It draws in people from the neighboring towns and islands, even from all over the country and the world. It is considered the biggest fiesta of the Philippines!
People come to Sinulog for various reasons. Some are attracted by the series of cultural and entertainment events that are an integral part of the celebrations. Others come with a more serious intention – to pay homage to the very center of the festivities, the Señor Santo Niño.
The Santo Niño is supposedly the image of God as a little boy. The icon at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño wears a crown and holds a scepter on one hand and a globe on the other, signifying God’s divine majesty and power.
This Catholic depiction of God as a small child is sneered at by other Christian denominations. They say that God is timeless and, therefore, ageless. It could not be of the human Jesus either, since Jesus, they assert, was never a royalty during his earthly life. Nevertheless, these arguments do not shake the devotion of believers.
The many activities that take place for a week or so towards the Sinulog grand parade comprise the annual observance of the fiesta of the Santo Niño. Like most other fiestas in
the country, the Fiesta Señor is a mix of merrymaking and pious worship. And, as hordes of people come, the occasion also spur business activities.
There is, reportedly, always a shortage of hotel rooms in the city at Sinulog time. The city’s response to the problem – the putting up of a so-called Pilgrim City, where visitors can stay for free – has barely helped. The other hospitality businesses, like restaurants, bars and amusement houses, simmer to full capacity; as all other businesses do, including the small, street-side knickknacks stalls.
While the fiesta celebrations are no doubt great fun, the occasion is also time for reverence. People flock to the Basilica during the daily novenas to bow before the image of the Holy Child. Many are there to just worship God; many more come to actually speak with the divine.
When devotees gather at the Basilica, they murmur something in worship or prayer. They make a panangpit kang Senyor (call to the Señor Santo Niño), either in gratitude or in supplication. At times some call out aloud, “Pit Senyor!” (short for sangpit kang Senyor) as if to make sure that the Child God will hear.
The “Pit Senyor!” is often chanted to go with the sinulog, the native dance of worship from the pagan past that has since incorporated
into the Christian practices of the local people.
The physical movement of the sinulog resembles that of the sulog or water current. With the characteristic “two steps forward, one step backward” footwork and up-and-down waving of the hands, the sinulog dancer mimics the movement of the river going downstream.
The dancing at the yard of the Basilica is a worship ritual. The one at the Sinulog parade is, for the most part, an artistic expression. Many people, however, view it as all the same, especially since the characteristic footwork and hand gestures are present in both performances.
Truth is, the sinulog dance – whether at the Basilica or along the parade route – emanates from one and the same past, a past founded on solid belief in supernatural forces beyond human comprehension. Before the introduction of Christianity, the local people worshipped pagan gods as their way of seeking divine favors, for making their life safe and bountiful.
Scholars say that faith in those days was not simply an aspect of local life – it was everything life is about. All else revolved around one’s faith. And so the people’s concept and practice of their faith determined their
way of life; hence, their culture.
It is possible that the
Cebuanos of old chanted to trees and rivers and cliffs as they performed rituals for the gods there. The panangpit, therefore, must have been as old as the practice of ritual dancing itself.
In remote rural areas today, it is still customary to hold banquets and perform rituals at rock formations or huge trees, for protection of crops or for the healing of the sick. A known tambalan or local healer is often contracted to do the panangpit of the spirits residing in those sites.
There were probably various ritual dances and the sinulog was just one of them. Sinulog was reportedly a dance ritual for the god of the river, the once abundant Pahina River towards the city’s southern plains. There must have been other distinct dances performed for the gods of the cliffs and of the big trees.
Nowadays, “Pit Senyor!” is not only a religious chant but a social greeting as well. At fiesta time, friends say it to one another as a goodwill greeting. And local residents use the catchphrase to greet visitors, to mean “Welcome.”
To fellow city residents and visitors alike, may this occasion strengthen everyone’s faith in the One God that is neither a young boy nor an old man, and is even without any particular gender. He who is neither the more nor the better God – for He is the most and the best and the only One.