The Sinulog festival is now on its 40th year
This is the Sinulog week for 2020 and if you add 20 plus 20, this is 40 and would you believe that this year’s Sinulog celebration is the 40th year we have been celebrating the Sinulog Festival? So for the 40th celebration of the Sinulog festivities, we present on our talk show the man who brought the Sinulog festivities to Cebu. No other than a great friend of mine, David “Boy” Odilao Jr., the Father of Sinulog. Indeed it’s a great honor for me to feature him for Sinulog week, but we don’t talk about the current Sinulog Festival that has been going on for 40 years already, we talk about how he started the Sinulog Festival.
Actually, the original name of the Sinulog Festival was “Sinulog sa Sugbo.” However as Odilao’s story goes, the project called Sinulog sa Sugbo started on January 20,1980. He was then regional director of the Youth and Sports Development when he was tasked to do two projects for Cebu. So his first project was actually called “Bahug-Bahug sa Mactan,” now the Battle of Mactan.
Since it was a stunning success, he was asked to come up with his second project and there he presented the Sinulog sa Sugbo. His reason was simple; Caticlan in Kalibo already celebrated “Ati-Atihan” in honor of the Señor Santo Niño and Iloilo had its Dinagyang Festival, which began in 1977. He thought that here we are in Cebu with old men and women dancing the “Sinug” in front of the Sto. Niño Basilica, yet we never had a festival to honor the Señor Santo Niño.
So the following year, on January 20, 1980 he organized the first-ever Sinulog sa Sugbo around the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, which turned out to be a stunning success because Cebu finally had a festival to honor the Holy Child. Indeed, how could I forget that first Sinulog sa Sugbo as my motorcycle group “Yamaha Philippines” participated in that festival. This is the very first motorcycle club we created and before the Sinulog Festival we would ride to Caticlan to join the Ati-Atihan.
So the rest is history. Forty years ago, the Cebu City mayor was Florentino Solon and the Cebu governor was Eduardo Gullas, the president of the Cofradia del Santo Nino was Mrs. Josefina “Inday Pining” Gullas and the head of the basilica was Rector Fr. Medardo Durmiendo, OSA. The Sinulog Festival today has been selected as the most popular festival in Asia and the number one tourist attraction in the Philippines.
So tonight we bring you David “Boy” Odilao Jr., to talk about how the Sinulog started 40 years ago. Watch it on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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Still on the issue of the Sinulog festivities, these days traffic has been quite problematic because of the closure of many roads. A clear example was last Saturday, when the 2020 Sinulog sa Kabataan sa Lalawigan was held. I had lunch along B. Rodriguez Avenue so by 1 p.m., I drove to V. Rama Avenue to turn right to M. Velez Street and back to my house. However, upon reaching the side of the Capitol, we were told to proceed towards the Fuente Osmeña to turn back to Escario Street. I decided to turn back and pass through the road that in the future would become the parallel road to Escario Street.
After turning in Andres Abellana Street it was then that I realized that all vehicles that came from Escario Street used the Villalon Road to go to Guadalupe and many vehicles wanting to go to Gorordo Avenue also passed this way. But traffic was heavily because no one was manning traffic. So lesson number one for the Cebu City Transportation Office is before you close a road find out where motorists would find a way to get through and place traffic enforcers on those roads to man the traffic. I hope our traffic officials read this.
Meanwhile, congratulations to the Carcar City Division for winning the 2020 Sinulog sa Kabataan sa Lalawigan. Not only did Carcar City Division win the Ritual Showdown, it also placed first for Best in Musicality, second in Street Dancing and Best in Costume.
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