The Sinulog is an annual festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City, Philippines, to honor the so called vision of the child Jesus, known as the Santo Niño, who used to be the patron Saint of Cebu (since in the Catholic faith, Jesus is not a saint, but God). This also commemorates the Cebuanos’ pagan past and their acceptance of Roman Catholicism. The word “Sinulog” actually derives from the Cebuano adverb --“sulog”, which means “like water current movement”. It is a ritual dance consisting of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of drums. Do you know where the dance steps derived from?
The Sinulog dance was believed to be originated from Baladhay, the adviser of Rajah Humabon. There was a time when Baladhay was severely sick, Rajah Humabon was totally in outmost grief and then he ordered his tribe to bring his adviser into a chapel where the Santo Niño was enthroned. After a moment of stay in the chapel, Baladhay was heard shouting and was found dancing vigorously. When people asked him what had happened, Baladhay explained that he found a child on top of him, trying to wake him up. At great astonishment, he shouted as hard as he could just to scare the child away. But he couldn't explain why he was dancing like the movement of the river. Up to this day, the two-steps forward, and the one-step backward dance is still used by the Santo Niño devotees, believing that it was the Santo Niño's choice to have Baladhay dance. However, as what Fr. Roger said in the Mass, the two-steps forward, and the one-step backward seems to be the natural characteristic of the Filipinos, because we never covet for more success in life; thus, we never also improve because as we take two steps forward, we always take another step backward. For me, I think sometimes it is also a good characteristic, kaya nga ang mga Pinoy ay di swapang, di ba? Hehehe….
The Sinulog Festival actually is celebrated for nine days culminating with a grand street parade. Nowadays, many smaller versions of the parade are held in many parts of the province prior to the grand parade. Even in Taiwan, Macau, China, USA, and other parts of the world wherever there are Cebuanos, the Sinulog Festival is celebrated in big or small version. As for our very own Sinulog in St. Joseph, Nanzih, Kaohsiung, you can check ‘em out in the photo gallery. The dancers were really fantastic!
His name is Jan Ciryl Tiburcio, alias JC. He is six years old and had just undergone a liver transplant last December 15, 2009. JC suffered a rare liver ailment called “Biliary Artresia”. He had just got the liver transplant operation and is now still in the intensive care unit. Why I am writing this is because that I really think the family needs a very big support from us. Let’s pray for the child’s health and pray that he could be out of ICU as soon as possible. Though I never met JC and didn’t got the chance to see him during my last visit on Dec. 25, I understand how hard it is for the parents of JC to be worrying about JC. Now, they still have one thing to worry. The hospital bill is getting bigger because of the medical treatments. We do not know until when the child will be out of the hospital, so please, to those people who have the hearts to help, let us pray and donate something for this family. We may give a little, do a little, but to the Tiburcio family, what we do and give would meant a lot to them. The following are the links to help you understand more about the current situation of JC:http://jancirylsbattle-eloi.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1177806138#/profile.php?id=1177806138 Advance thanks to you and may every good thing comes to your life.
The Masquerade Ball held in St. Joseph Parish was very exciting! It started with pitch-perfect presentation that was really spellbinding. Even the neighbors around the parish were flooding the entrance just to have a glimpse. Sayang talaga! Coz I was late that day and was not able to see the presentation from the very start. However, I still got the chance to watch the rest of presentation, and really had to give these stage performers a BIG BIG applause for the performances well done!! I envy them!! Oh, truly, how I really envy them! They are really magnificent and very talented. From the decorations, costume designs, stage performances, dances, choreography, everything! And I heard they got not much time for the preparation. Yet, they could still manage to put this event with enjoyments.
After the presentation was the ballroom dancing. Audiences were very shy to step on the dance floor. The stage performers had to drag every one of them down to the floor to have a wiggle. Was it because I looked slow-witted, that’s why nobody wanted to invite me to a dance? Well, I should say that maybe I’m not that good looking enough to be dragged to the floor for a dance, hahaha!!
Anyway, the Masquerade Ball was a success. Though the patrols came twice to warn us that the streaming music was too loud. The policemen said that some neighbors complained that they were seriously disturbed by the sounds. Ganyan naman talaga ang buhay. Kapag may celebration, may KJ (as in kill-joy), di ba? I could only say, “inggit lang sila”! Hahaha!
Hanep talaga! Ang saya at natapos na rin ang Basketball Competition namin! Big thanks talaga to all the participants of Basketball Competition and all the volunteer workers who really sacrificed a lot for the preparation of the event. To all the basketball teams, referees, scorers, band, singers, dancers, emcee, and everyone who came to cheer for their favorite teams, Hurray to all of you! For such fabulous event! Also special thanks to Capetronics, kahit na naghirap-hirap kami sa pag-carry out ng event dahil sa sobrang init, thank you na rin.
Here are the shots we've got from the event. Look at those players! Sweating but still guwapings! They're really very serious about the competitions, huh? Talagang seriyoso sila!...Anyway, it was the first time for St. Joseph to organized Basketball Competition in Nantzu, and it's really kind of successful. I am really amazed by the support and collaboration of each team. They really played best sportsmanship and team spirit, and to this, they are all winners. I admire them not only for their charismatic skills, but also their exuberant vitality. During the championship competition, si Jeff ('yun bang pangalan nya as I remembered) tuloy ang naging LIVE reporter, kahit di gaanong maintindihan dahil ume-echo, pero, OK na rin, more thanks to him.
Aside from the first, second and third place, there were also MVPs awarded. Sayang, walang "Muse" award. I hope next time they will also awarding "BEST MUSE" para sasali ako :) Hehehe, joke lang! Sa looks ko pa lang di na nga makahanap ng basketball team na kukupkop sa 'kin bilang muse, di ba?
Well, just hope that next year, it will still be this successful or even much more successful. What I really hope is that, mayroon kayang Basketball pambabae? Naitanong ko lang, pero dili man ako sasali, eh.
Last Friday, a super typhoon Morakot which had just struck Philippines, causing sever impacts in 11 villages such as Paudpod, San Juan, Baton-lapoc, Carael, Tampo, Paco, San Miguel, Binig, Bangan, and Capayawan, landed on Taiwan and brought flooding rains and sever damages. It was said to be the worst catastrophe that Taiwan ever encountered in 50 years. The tremendous amounts of rain brought about by Morakot caused mudslides and raging rivers that overflowed the banks and caused widespread flooding and erosion. Some areas in Taiwan even reported isolated amounts of water more than 8 feet depth. In the Philippines, about 30,000 families were affected by Morakot, and more or less twelve people are confirmed dead. The affected villages submerged in 4 feet or 5 feet deep floods, and thousands of people lost their homes. A 20 years old hotel in Chihpen, Taitung (East Taiwan), was not able to survive the disaster and collapsed into the river after it was evacuated. Luckily, no one was harmed. But, in the other areas of Taiwan like Hsiao-Lin Village wasn’t this fortunate. It was reported that the village had more than a thousand inhabitants. When the mudslide washed down the village, only a few people were able to escape it. Though there were some who were continuously rescued, but there were still some residents buried alive by the mudslide. The rescue team 24/7 restlessly digs the mudslide with excavator. They thought that digging out the mudslide would make it easier for them to search for the other survivors. Yet, as they dig, they were only stunned by the consternation of dead bodies unearthed from the deep mud. One of the dead bodies was even torn into halves. Only topper half part of the body was found and the other half is still missing. So far, there were already 400 people died and 45 wounded; and the toll seems to be increasing as days count. It was calculated that the overall damages in Taiwan had already reached more than 6.8 Billions NT Dollars and about 346 schools were destructed. Many people were forced to evacuate their homes. Hundreds and hundreds of homes were destroyed. In Tainan area, there were many Filipino workers trapped inside their dormitories without water, electricity, food and clean clothes. Most of the dormitories’ ground floors were heavily flooded. One dormitory’s rooftop was even coiled away by Morakot. The workers had nothing to eat and shuddered in the cold. All they can do was to rely on any source of assistance they could possibly get. Though there were boatsshuttling around to give people food to eat, but still it was never enough to feed hundreds of people there. The MECO-Kaohsiung Office, together with Fr. Popong of Stella Maris, visited Tainan to give concerns and bring food supplies for these trapped Filipino workers. Some places are really difficult to break through because the roads are still flooded and the heavy rains kept on flooding the places. The Taiwan government, as well as the media and other concerning groups, are now raising funds to help rebuild the towns destroyed by Morakot. The concerning groups like the Catholic Diocese of Kaohsiung is calling out the people to donate rice, mineral water, instant noodles, canned goods, etc. Other concerning groups of different religions also donated goods and money, and devoted efforts in the distributions of food supplies house-to-house in places isolated by heavy flood and sunken roads. There are also group of civilians who volunteer to join the rescue team. There’s a saying in Chinese: “In plight, we all stand together.” I believe that the destruction caused by Morakot will be deeply imprinted in our memories. Morakot reminded me of the 921 quake in Taiwan in1999. The havoc had taken 2,415 lives, more than 11,000 severely wounded, and more than 44,000 houses were completely destroyed. That time, people stood together in one heart to rebuild the nation and help each other to regain faiths in life. This time, again, people stood shoulder to shoulder to overcome this traumatic event; and faith shall once again kindle our hope for the future.
June 21, 2009, a celebration of Philippines Independence Day-- this was a very busy day for all the staff of Stella Maris. We have an important mission to carry on. Louis was ordered to go to St. Mary's and the Cathedral with Fr. Popong to distribute the brochures while I and Anna went to Nanzih with Fr. Roger.
Fr. Roger really highly estimated me that day. I was really startled when he told me to help him in Power Point briefing about the new building of Stella Maris. I was not prepared and nervous. How could Fr. Roger do that to me, I thought. But then, no matter what, I had to force myself to do it. Thanks to my adrenaline rush that I still collaborated with Fr. Roger perfectly. Not that I’m being perky, but the briefing worked out very well and I haven’t done any ignorant thing in front of hundreds of people, hahaha! Well, Fr. Roger, thanks for giving me such opportunity to SHOW OFF my ability, but, next time, please let me know first before you have any more surprises like this.
Though it’s raining, still many Filipinos participated the event. Lunchboxes were offered and also gifts for people who came. There were dance numbers, costume shows of different natives of Philippines, costume competition, and raffle draw. The costume competition even brought to climax when a CUTE guy with a bahag showed off his butt! And because of exposing his nice looking butt, he won the first price in the competition. There were also other dance numbers that were really tremendous, but I didn’t appreciate them wholly because I had to help Charlie (MECO) in taking photos. I was like a reporter with a camera running around just to take some good shots.
Well, though it’s really very exhausting, still I have to say that the celebration was a success. People participated happily and we all devoted joyfully. Special thanks to MECO , ASE, OSE, NEPD, some brokers (I didn’t happened to know their names), and of course our very own, Fr. Roger and Fr. Popong and the rest of staff of Stella, Louis, Anna and ME. Tell you what, aside from celebration of Philippines Independence Day, June 21 is also the “Fathers Day” in Philippines—“Araw ng mga Tatay”!! If you were not able to attend the celebration, be sure to participate the exhilarating event next time.
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