On the third Sunday of January, the streets of Cebu City, and other Filipino towns explode in a riot of colour for the Sinulog Festival. The annual cultural and religious festival is a Catholic tradition honouring Santo Niño.
Street parades are the primary attraction of Sinulog celebrations. Typically lasting as long as 12 hours, parades feature larger than life costumes in an array of bright colours and traditional music and dance, revolving around trumpet, drums and gongs. Dances often represent myths and folklore stories. Celebrating the local populace’s acceptance of Christianity, the Cebu parade ends at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño with a reenacted baptism.
The grandest festival is in Cebu City, which visitors can reach via the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. Located in Lapu Lapu City, it takes about an hour to reach Cebu City proper. Most hotels offer airport pickup service, but there is also an air-conditioned bus which leaves the airport every 30 minutes.
Dance is central to the Sinulog Festival, so much so that the traditional parade dance gives the festival its name. Sinulog means “water current movement” and references the way the two steps forward and one step back movement of the dance resembles baptismal waters.