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The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festivals in the Philippines. The main festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Niño, or the child Jesus, who is the patron saint of the whole province of Cebu. It is essentially a dance ritual which could trace its roots to Cebuano pagan ancestry but which came to be symbol of Cebuano religious piety.
The festival features some the country's most colorful displays of pomp and pageantry: participants garbed in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing.
Recently, the cultural event has been commercialized as a tourist attraction and instead of traditional street-dancing from locals, Sinulog also came to mean a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog Contest is traditionally held in the Cebu City Sports Complex, formerly Abellana National High School, where most of Cebu's major provincial events are held.
Smaller versions of the festival are also held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. There is also the Sinulog ng Kabataan, which is basically Sinulog performed by the youths of Cebu.
The Sto. Nino Festival is the biggest expression of devotion to the Holy Child in the Luzon Island, celebrated every last Sunday of January. The week-long festivities begin with an exhibit of nino and culminate in a grand procesion of hundered of folk, antique and new statues of the Holy Child in different manifestations, e.g., as shepherd boy. as keeper of the world, as a sleeping child, etc. These celebrations are two of the most colorful events in the city in honor of the Sto. Nino.
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