On Sunday, January 17 2010, the ”Sinulog” feast of the infant Jesus was celebrated at The Good Shepherd Catholic Church at Plumpton. It was the 20th anniversary celebration for the Cofradia Del Santo Niño based in Blacktown.
The feast was celebrated with a nine day novena including a triduum mass followed by Sinulog dancing then, similar to Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes, all visitors and participants were invited to partake with the plentiful food. This year’s estimated attendance was 3000 people. Devotees literally packed the church to the walls and overflowed into the courtyard.
”Sinulog” comes from a Visayan word, ”sulog” which means ”water current”, hence the dance. Sinulog means: ”Like water current”. It proficiently describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance. The dance consists of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of the drums.
Historically, it was the explorer Hernando de Magallanes, better known as Ferdinand Magellan, who presented the effigy of the infant Jesus to Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon. After her baptism, along with the rulers of the island, some 800 natives were also baptised to the Roman Catholic Church. At the moment of receiving the idol, it was said that Queen Juana danced with joy bearing the image of the child Jesus. With the other natives following her example, this dance was regarded as the first ”Sinulog”. Queen Juana was believed to have encouraged the people to turn to Sto Niño for blessings and to drive evil spirits and afflictions away.
To quench the devotees’ earthly thirst, Noble Beverages provided 960 litres of pure water in casks. ”Noble’s Pureau” is Australia’s purest and best-tasting water, completely free of all impurities including chlorine, bacteria and sodium. Having water in casks mean much less plastic bottle waste ~ there are great environmental benefits of choosing water in casks over plastic bottles.
With tongue-in-cheek, one could believe that devoting oneself to the Sto Niño and Noble’s Pureau is the safest choice for helping improve your family’s health and wellness. I couldn’t help but sound like I was pitching an advertisement (my promise/panaad to noble water). I could see parallels between the quenching of the spiritual body through Jesus and of the physical body through water. Water, as a ”giver of life” is the source of our existence. Let’s have a quick look, shall we, of how we are immersed in water.
In our mother’s womb, we were enveloped by water (amniotic = liquid = water = wet), before we were born, it is said that the ”water broke”. Before we were conceived, a seed travelled via bodily fluids, to get into the womb. As we drank our mothers’ creamy water (milk), a ‘wee’ amount will eventually escape.
In baptism, water is used to signify our rebirth. With plants, we have to “baptise” it, for the plant to grow. Our mother earth is predominantly water. So are our bodies. All living things need water, for it to survive.
Step into space and view earth from a certain distance and the rivers and streams appear to be the veins and aortas, just as blood courses through our bodies. The earth supports innumerable organisms and animals and all things in it correlate to make it function. Our bodies really are a kind of planet with all different kinds of living things in and on it to make it function.
It was over water and its currents that Magellan travelled and arrived in the Philippines. The ”Sinulog Dance” was based on water and its currents.
I leave you with this thought: Is it not water that makes the world go round that life depends on it?
Maybe the Indians got it right when they revere the Ganges River. I think it is righteous and wholesome that we should keep our water, ”noble and pureau”. #
Other post/s by Mitchell Badelles
- Will the sea levels rise when the ice caps melt? - May 30th, 2011
- Priest runs for Chifley - July 30th, 2010
- Who won the elections? - May 19th, 2010
About Mitchell Badelles
Very interesting article and absorbing read.
May I just ask where the name “Hara Amihan” is found? I have checked all the primary and secondary accounts of Magellan’s voyage–those by Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, The Genoese Pilot, Francisco Albo, Martin Dayamonte, The Anonymous Portuguese, Sebastian Elcano, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Maximilianus Transylvanus, Antonio de Brito, The Leiden Narrative–and I don’t recall having come across this name.
Maybe there’s an anonymous eyewitness account that has this name?
VICENTE CALIBO DE JESUS
Ha ha Mitchell! You’re views are always tongue-in-cheek! :p
but you’re right about water!
Hi Vicente,
Salamat sa imong pag basa sa akong gisulat.
Where are you based? Please come to next year’s fiesta Sto Niño. I’m glad you found it interesting. I’d like to know what sparked your interest and most specially, how you found this to be absorbing. Was it the information, or the way it was written? I wrote this based on experience and what my grandparents have told me. The Cofradia Del Santo Nino has been celebrating this event for the last 20 years here in Blacktown. I would like to get feedback in the hope of always being able to improve how I write.
It seems you have an extensive library. More than mine anyway. I don’t know of an anonymous eyewitness that you mention here but please type the name “Hara Amihan” into your search engine and you will find at least 8 links, as I did. One of them is in Spanish.
Pit Senor!
Hi Michelle,
The majority of my youth was spent in Iligan City in Mindanao and in Cebu City in the Visayas. An influential part of it was spent with people who live in, not quite slums, but in poor areas where families live under someone else’s house, or a whole family in a one room payag/kubo/hut.
What i loved most was the humour and the way they made me feel like I was part of their family. Whatever meagre food there was, was shared among all, regardless of how many people there were.
I find similarities in this kind of humour, with Australian humour. The best example, as i showed in what i have written, is the word, ‘baptise’. I have often heard my lola say, “bunyagi ang bagonbilya” (water the bougainvillea plants). Bunyag to me means to christen, bless or shower with water.
For me, the best way to understand Australian humour is to live in the country. I spent some time in Bombala, NSW and love the South Coast.I experienced humour similar to what I experienced in the Philippines. For this, I am proud to be Australian and Filipino.
Bulahan ka!
A friend asked,”isn’t it sinulog or “go with the flow” because if sulog is water current then sinulog is go with the current?”
Bay Julius, I would say you’re also correct with your interpretation of the word Sinulog. My best analogy would be to think in tagalog, ‘parang sulog’, same as sinawali, parang sawali. Running along this kind of thinking, to ‘go with the current’ would be nagpasulog, or nagpa anod-anod. Keeping in mind that the dance is moving forward and backward imitating the water current, I guess Sinulog sounds better than anod-anod, and sinulog also rolls off the tongue easier.