It therefore comes as no surprise that the guitar is a prime product in Cebu which, quite naturally, has also produced a large share of the country’s best musicians and master showmen.
The Cebuano’s flair for showmanship and love for celebrations is manifested in the Sinulog, a colorful festival of pageant proportion observed every third Sunday of January.
Cebu is an anchor tourist destination and one of the 7,000 times more islands that make up the Philippine archipelago.
The Isle of Your Tropical Dreams
Cebu is the traveler’s fantasy of a tropical island come true – balmy weather, pristine beaches, crystalline waters, and luxurious resorts with all the frills of modern living.
The island-province of Cebu was where the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan planted the Cross of Christianity in the name of Spain in 1521. But even before Cebu became the Occidental gateway to the Orient, it was already a popular entry point among Asian merchants.
Cebu has since blossomed into a choice tourist destination, with many leisure establishments taking full advantage of its sea-valley-and-mountain location.
Metropolitan Cebu, the country’s second biggest metropolis, is the political, economic, educational and cultural center of the Visayas. Hotels, shopping malls, entertainment halls, casinos and golf fairways are ever present in the metro to cater to every tourist’s whim.
The rest of Cebu’s 166 islands and islets are fringed with sandy beaches and sapphire-clear waters teeming with marine life, perfect for divers.
Fiesta Extravaganza
The fiesta is when life in these islands is celebrated in full pageantry, complete with a brilliant display of sights and sounds, scents and tastes. Cebu shows us how.
The Sinulog is Cebu’s biggest and showiest fiesta in honor of the Infant Jesus or Señor Santo Niño. In a choreographed movement, “tribes” clad in dazzling costumes hold aloft images of their tiny patron even as they simulate the natural rhythm of sea waves which brought the Holy Child to their shores. The prayer-dance is synchronized to the beat of drums and shouts of “Pit Señor! Viva Santo Niño!”
The tribes wend through the city’s major streets, starting early in the morning and stretching into early evening. A big entertainment roadshow and grand fireworks display bring to a close the celebration.
The Kadaugan sa Mactan is a one-day pageant re-enacting the historic battle between the Magellan-led Spanish colonizers and the resisting natives led by Rajah Lapu-lapu. The festival is celebrated every April 27 in Lapu-lapu City at the beach area where the Portuguese voyager met his death.
While the rest of Christendom observes Holy Week with somber rituals, fasting and abstinence, Bantayan Island makes an exception. The townspeople display their brand of folk Catholicism by feasting on roasted pig and then swimming at its white sand beaches after a religious procession. The Semana Santa is a movable feast between the months of March and April.
The rustic town of Opon honors its patroness, Our Lady of Rule, with a fiesta from November 20 to 21.
Guests take the occasion of the Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria to visit the beautiful old town of Carcar which, aside from its splendid colonial architecture, also produces a number of Cebu’s popular delicacies.
In December, Cebu culminates its fiesta celebrations with the month-long Paskuhan, a festival of Christmas songs and lantern displays.
City Sights
Cebu takes pride in being the country’s oldest colonial city. Many landmarks attest to the richness of its history.
On April 14, 1521, Magellan planted a cross to mark the spot where some 800 natives – led by Rajah Humabon and his wife, Queen Juana – were baptized into the Catholic faith. The original cross is now encased in a hallow hardwood cross and can be found in a roofed kiosk along Magallanes Street.
As a baptismal gift to Queen Juana, Magellan gave a black image of the Infant Child which, on April 27, 1565, managed to remain unscathed after a fire razed Cebu to the ground. The Basilica Minor del Santo Niño was built by Captain Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Fr. Andres Urdaneta on the spot where the miraculous icon was found. The religious statue has since been enthroned in the basilica, with the original kept inside the convent and a replica enshrined at the church’s side altar.