Residents and visitors filled the streets of Pandacan in Manila to take part in the festivities and events in celebration of the feast day of the district’s patron, Santo Niño de Pandacan, on 18 January, the third Sunday of the month. 

In the morning, the image of the Santo Niño de Pandacan was brough out of the church to lead the maringal na prusisyon or grand procession. He was greeted with shouts of “Viva, Santo Niño! Viva!” by parishioners. The procession was followed by the Misa Maringal or Grand Mass, which was held throughout the day as households served and enjoyed feasts with their families, neighbors and visitors. 

On the same day, the district of Tondo also celebrated the feast with its own image of the Holy Infant, the Santo Niño de Tondo. Across the Philippines, many communities, towns and cities marked the occasion, underscoring the widespread devotion to the Santo Niño, one of the most beloved religious images in the predominantly Catholic nation.

The Santo Niño holds a singular place in Philippine history as the first Roman Catholic image brought to the archipelago. Its arrival is closely linked to the beginnings of Christianization in 1521, with the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano. Chronicler Antonio Pigafetta recorded that about eight hundred natives in Cebu, including Rajah Humabon and his wife, were baptized. Magellan presented Humabon’s wife, later renamed Juana, with an image of the Santo Niño, now revered as the Santo Niño de Cebu and regarded as the oldest surviving Santo Niño image in the country, around which the nation’s largest feast is celebrated.

The provenance of the original Santo Niño de Pandacan, distinguished by its dark complexion, remains shrouded in lore. Many believe the image to be about four centuries old. According to the story, which bears striking resemblance with origin stories of other religious icons, in the early seventeenth century, a group of children discovered the image among pandan plants, from which the area took its name — Pandanan, meaning a place where pandan grows, eventually becoming Pandacan. The image was initially enshrined at the Church of Our Lady of Loreto in Sampaloc, but it was said to repeatedly disappear and reappear at the site where it had been found. Community elders, assisted by Franciscan priests, resolved to build a visita on that spot. The chapel, constructed in 1712, later became the Pandacan Church.