MANILA: Nearly 5 million people filled the streets of Cebu City with music and dance on Sunday, as they participated in Sinulog, the largest religious festival in the Philippines, commemorating the introduction of Christianity.
Observed on the third Sunday of January, Sinulog marks the 1521 event when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan gifted a statue of the Santo Nino, the child Jesus, to Rajah Humabon, the native king of Cebu, who became the first local ruler to convert to Christianity.
The original statue is housed in the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino, the country’s oldest Roman Catholic church. It was founded in 1565, shortly after the arrival of the Spaniards and the beginning of Spanish colonization of the Philippines, which also resulted in Catholicism becoming its dominant religion.
Santo Nino has become one of the most venerated images and is present in many churches across the country. Every year, Catholics from across the country visit Cebu City to express their devotion.
On Sunday, 4.7 million of them gathered for the Sinulog parade, according to data from Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
