The Sinulog Festival

The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festivals in the Philippines with a very rich history. 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 used to be the patron saint of the whole province of Cebu (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is essentially a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people’s pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity.

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, trumpets, and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. 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 a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.

Aside from the colorful and festive dancing, there is also the SME trade fair where Sinulog features Cebu export quality products and people around the world flock on the treasures that are Cebu.

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, where most of Cebu’s major provincial events are held.

Official Website of the Province of Bukidnon - About Bukidnon

The Province of Bukidnon is located at the center of Mindanao Island, southern part of the Philippines. It is a landlocked province bounded on the North by the City of Cagayan de Oro, on the South by North Cotabato and Davao City, on the East by Agusan del Sur and Davao del Norte, and on the West by Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur.

Occupying a wide plateau in the North Central part of Mindanao, Bukidnon has a progressive agriculture-based economy. It is a major producer of rice, corn, sugar, coffee, rubber, pineapple, tomato, flowers, cassava, and other fruits and vegetables. It is also a major producer of chicken, hogs, and cattle. Having the biggest agricultural area with soils and climate highly suited to agriculture, Bukidnon is the main source of agricultural products and raw materials that feeds the processing plants within the province and the major processing centers of the region. Hence, Bukidnon is tagged as the region’s “Food Basket”.

Bukidnon is also labelled as the highland paradise in the heart of Mindanao. While it derived its name from the Visayan term “bukid” for “mountain”, it is predominantly a rolling grassland plateau with an average elevation of 915 meters. The rolling uplands, deep canyons and valleys alternating with the low plains create a refreshing vista for dwellers and travellers alike.

Bukidnon is relatively cool and moist throughout the year. The refreshing cool climate in the Bukidnon plateau is attributed to its fairly high altitude.

Not only is Bukidnon endowed with natural attractions, the province's terrain is characterized by deep ravines and dense forest mountains which protect the province from storms. Bukidnon is also typhoon-free.

The mountain ranges, namely, Mt. Kimangkil Range, Pantaron Range, Mt. Tangkulan Range, Mt. Tago Range, Mt. Kalatungan Range Natural Park and Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park contain the remaining tropical rainforests of Bukidnon. These mountain ranges host several watersheds that are vital to the ecological and economic balance of Mindanao. Aside from being the homeland of the indigenous peoples (IPs), these ranges are also the habitat of critically endangered, economically important and endemic fauna (like the Philippine Eagle, the second largest bird in the world) and flora (such as the Rafflesia, known as world’s giant flower). Mt. Kitanglad, the highest mountain in the ranges, towering at 2,938 meters (9,639 feet), is second only to Mount Apo among the country’s peaks.