As the month of January mark the Feast of Sto. Niño de Cebu and the “Sinulog Festival” in the province of Cebu, the faithful devotees of the image of Baby Jesus and the festivalgoers converge into one of the country’s finest festivities it can offer.

In line with this, the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño narrates the difference between the Feast of Sto. Niño de Cebu and the “Sinulog Festival” which are both held on the third Sunday of January.

“It is true that most people do not know the difference or that separate names are being used. Devotees or even most of the people are more familiar with the Sinulog Festival than the Fiesta Señor,” explained Fr. Genesis Labana, the director of BMSN Media Center.

Labana said that the only obvious difference between the two are the organizers, as the Fiesta Señor is organized by the Augustinian priests while the “Sinulog Festival” is spearheaded by the Sinulog Foundation Inc. and the local government of Cebu City.

The Fiesta Señor pertains to the religious activities in the province, while Sinulog refers to the cultural aspect of the devotion to the Holy Child.

But whichever way, the fact remains that without the Sto. Niño, these two festivities would be possible.

The opening salvo for the Fiesta Señor 2024 started 11 January followjng the Penitential Walk with Jesus which is a 2.1-kilometer foot procession.

Fiesta Señor dates back from the arrival of the image of the Santo Niño in 1521. Its religious activities include a nine-day novena, foot processions, seaborne procession, reenactment of the first baptism and first wedding and the Hubo Mass.

The Hubo — which means undress — features the stripping off and the changing of the garment of the replica of the Holy Child from a grandiose one to a simpler one, marking the end of the celebration of the Fiesta Señor in the BMSN.

“Sinulog Festival,” on the other hand, covers the various competitions in honor of the Holy Child — from the grand parade and the grand ritual showdown participated by contingents nationwide.

The festival include the Sinulog sa Dakbayan or Sinulog for the Cebu City Youth and the Sinulog sa Lalawigan or Sinulog for the Cebu Province Youth before the Sinulog Grand Parade and Ritual Showdown at the South Road Properties.

Sinulog is a ritual dance-prayer performed to pay homage to the miraculous image of Señor Santo Niño, with its origin stemming from “Sinug” or a dance prayer. It was already danced by the natives as supplication to the deities and nature spirits called “diwata.”

Meanwhile, retired Cebu Customs district collector David Odilao Jr., the founder of the Sinulog said that “the most important thing is, we dance the Sinulog in honor of the Sto. Niño because we conceptually organize the first Sinulog as the dance of veneration of Sto. Niño, our beloved Señor Sto. Niño de Cebu.”

He was then the regional director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for Central Visayas when he started the Sinulog in 1980 and he is also a prominent figure behind the extraordinary cultural and religious phenomenon in Cebu for over four decades now.

Odilao also founded the Bahug-Bahug sa Mactan, which honors the country’s first and only battle victory. Later, it is dubbed as the Battle of Mactan were Datu Lapu-Lapu prevented and killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

He disclosed that his vision then was to establish the identity of Cebuanos through a dance that pays homage to Señor Santo Niño de Cebu.

The original carousel route of the parade started in downtown Cebu and ended at Plaza Independencia.