Pit Senyor!

Starting in the later part of the last century, in 1980, the simple dance of worship of the Cebuanos of old has grown into a full-blown festival. The Cebu City government, upon the instigation of some enterprising minds hoping to put Cebu on the tourism map, has taken the worship dance to the streets. And, indeed, the Sinulog Festival has since become the biggest celebration of its kind in the country.

The pre-colonial Cebuanos, like all primitive peoples, were reportedly pagans. They hallowed the heavens, the tides, rivers, trees, and rock formations. They worshipped anything that they thought wielded some supernatural power over them and their life conditions.

Rituals were supposedly performed for the pagan idols; animals were slaughtered at worship ceremonies as offerings, along with choice farm crops. The people wore pieces of shell, wood, bone, beast tooth or stone as amulets to ward off sickness and evil spirits, and to give them special abilities.

This changed with the introduction of a new religion by the Spanish colonizers. But not completely. Some pagan rituals survived and prevail to this day. Sinulog is one example.

How the ritual dance has survived through the centuries, while other indigenous practices had faded away, is a wonder. We could only surmise some possible explanations, based on scanty historical data available and added with abundant imagination.

Sinulog steps are said to be a simulation of the movements of the sulog (water current) of the Pahina River, towards the city’s southern side. Owing to its enormous size, the river must have been revered by the pagan villagers inhabiting the surrounding areas. Hence, the mimicking of the river waters.

The river is close to the present San Nicolas district, for which reason it is likely that the ritual dance originated there. San Nicolas was later on to be the center of resistance activities by the natives, who were concentrated in the area at the early part of the Spanish occupation. Perhaps out of defiance and opposition to the new order, particularly to resist Christianization, the people might have had continued to perform the “sinulog,” it being their own and, therefore, a precious identity symbol.

It could have been political wisdom on the part of the Spaniards to eventually allow the inclusion of “sinulog” in the religious rituals of the new faith, in order to sway more natives towards Christianity. It was, perhaps, at the San Nicolas Church where the performance of “sinulog” was initially permitted by the church authorities.

Then the practice must have soon spread to the neighboring churches or parishes, especially the San Agustin Church (now Basilica del Santo Niño), the Cebu Cathedral and the San Juan Bautista Church in Parian. The dancing, however, might have been strictly limited to the church yard. Even today “sinulog” is very seldom, if at all, allowed inside the church, an indication perhaps of the church’s reluctance in affirming the Christian merit of the dance.

The prayer dance has since become a common practice especially during fiestas and other big religious occasions in the cities and towns of Cebu. The dance is performed before the patron saint, either as fulfilment of a panaad, a pledge to perform the dance in gratitude for some divine favors, or as panangpit, a plea for the granting of petitions.

Panangpit is the basis of the sinulog chant “Pit Señor!” It’s short for “Sangpit sa Señor,” meaning a plea to the His Holiness, whether the Santo Nino or any saint.

Today, the Sinulog parade takes the scale of a grand mardi gras, usually taking many hours to cover the long route. The event attracts participants from other places in the country and even abroad, each displaying their own regional and national cultures, respectively. Some parade contingents wear costumes and use performance paraphernalia that completely depart in look and character from the “sinulog” of old.

The original “sinulog” steps are retained, though; the forward-backward movement. It is, at least, the one feature that lends some historical basis to the present dance. But, in the main, it’s not history that draws people to the Sinulog festival. It’s their faith – and the big fun, the great spectacle that fills the city’s hotels and other business establishments to overflowing.