The Feast of Sinulog: Cebuano Heritage

Okay, now let’s see. The first time I saw the yearly celebration of Sinulog was on television and that was way back in the early 90’s. I was still a kid though and I didn’t know what it’s all about… but I did like the colors and choreographies.

Let’s take a little peak about the Sinulog festival’s history, briefly.

It began years ago back in April 7, 1521, to be precise, when a Portuguese explorer named Fernando de Magallanes landed in the beaches of the early Cebu. He was greeted by Rajah Humabon and in return, Magallanes presented an image of the child Jesus, a Santo Nino, to Humabon’s wife, Hara Humamay. Upon receiving the image, it was said that she danced with joy and, along with her, the townsmen followed. This was thought to be the first celebration of Sinulog.

Since then, the celebration has been forgotten until 1980 when the Cebuanos proclaimed the first actual celebration of Sinulog. From then on, year by year dancers from Cebu put on several costumes, masks, face paints and heavy presentation of dancing to honor the Santo Nino. Currently, this has paved way for several participants from several locations of the Philippines to take part of the festivity.

I have been able to take part with this celebration since we moved to Cebu in the early 90’s. The Sinulog parade begins in the early morning when the rerouting of jeepneys and several vehicle directions are posted on the newspapers as well as reports on local television. Me and my parents would normally embrace the long-distance walk from kilometers away to watch the live parade. Several places are jampacked; the malls, restaurants, hotels and others. The streets are flooded by people, captioned with the excitement and delight about the celebration. The fun starts whenever we arrive at the presentation spot where thousands of people flock together to watch several groups of dancers strut their stuff along with the Sinulog beat. This albeit the dreaded heat and the distance of what they are about to go.

At the end of the day, remnants of the celebration linger and it’s time for the people, who attended the celebration, to rest. But to all Cebuanos who have attended or watched the celebration, be it live or television, the excitement of the event is hinted anew and to expect the same celebration again the next year. Now, that’s something worth waiting for.

Bisrock: The Elevation of Cebuano Music

The slow revolution of Cebuano music has elevated itself to become one of the most celebrated genres of today. Actually, through the years, I’ve been hearing songs from notable Cebuano singers/composers such as Max Surban and Yoyoy Villame and they do have talents as well as skills into making their songs match their personalities. And the melodies are contagious too. They do it naturally and it sticks to the minds of the people who have heard it. And lucky me, I do hear those kind of songs ever since I opened my eyes the first time.

Today, the modern Cebuano music, or popularly known as bisrock, has encouraged several Cebuanos to give the Cebuano language the full-blast back into the music scene. Especially for the young minds, this is an opportunity to contribute what they have to the vast world of music and not just simply do “cover songs” to boost their status to the higher rankings. Now all they have to do is to put their minds to the extent into making original Cebuano compositions that unfolds the discovery of creativeness that are dwelling inside the minds of every Cebuano.

Bisrock, is short for “bisaya na rock”. “Bisaya” is the Cebuano term for Cebuano language and this has proved to become the ultimate name for the new genre, that is, modern Cebuano music. Talented individuals have provided their own compositions and have notched up to be heard by everybody on the radio waves and especially to the whole world. This goes to show that Cebuanos are in for the ride and not to be left over. After all, the local scene has geared towards the unfolding of the new generation and bisrock is one of them.

Istorya.Net

Southern Philippine’s premiere discussion/forums abode

Websites are the common places that we can entirely find out something about a certain subject and learn something about its history and background. Actually, I’ve been dwelling into a certain website that focuses mostly on my interests. I seem to be on the verge of lameness until I stumbled upon the development of discussion threads or message boards that discusses about the certain topics. The most interesting thing about this website is that, most of the members are Cebuanos. “Now this is new”, I said. I clicked the link and there popped out istorya.net/forums.

“istorya”, in English, meaning “talk” gave me the overall idea that it provides the opportunity for someone like me to jump on the bandwagon and get involved. Of course, it gives me a great feeling that a website like this exists, not only to the Cebuanos but to the world.

Istorya.net is actually more into just forums since they also feature several destinations and gives opportunity to every member to post their pictures and images to artistic values or simply share photos that captivates the Cebuano lifestyle. Also, the people of istorya.net not only posts their messages and views about certain subjects, they also provide help to the less fortunate ones who are struggling to keep themselves in their lives. Together with all these features, istorya.net continues to dominate the Cebuano online spot where some discovers great opportunities to discuss something like national and local politics, sports and recreations, share funny stories, great destinations for local and tourists and other things.

I started out back in October 2005 and, up to now, I still enjoy posting my point of views, especially about NBA basketball. I did explore some of the website’s other threads and there are a lot of people getting involved in several discussions. This goes to show that Cebuanos do have their own perspectives when it comes to certain things and that istorya.net is the place where they can share their views and converse, be it with sense or not.

University of San Carlos – Technological Center

Location: Talamban, Cebu City

It started with the idea, years ago, that the University of San Carlos – Technological Center,which is located in Talamban, was dubbed as the one of the most, if not, the most “coolest” place to be among several colleges. The rugged look, jagged attitude yet sophisticated lifestyle in college of USC-TC have embraced the popularity by standpoint from most students in the whole Cebu. Actually, I didn’t believe that idea until I got enrolled back in the year 2000, the year in which the controversial issue of ROTC rocked every university and college in the whole country. I had a choice to enroll either IT (Information Technology) or Fine Arts and I chose the latter since I had a bit of background in the sketching and drawing department. But, the real life is not always involved in the vast space of getting educated and getting involved with the art fiasco and other stuff since it is also about how you handle your life outside of the school and to get acquainted with the college life… and I have been able to learn what USC-TC is all about. However, that is for me to keep.

Fast forward seven years later, I found myself not able to cope with my studies albeit of some encouragements. But that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t able to learn something out of the experiences I have in that school, not to mention the relationships between the students and teachers, especially in the Fine Arts department. Also, there are also the issues that have brought certain conflict between the students and the school management but, I guess, who hasn’t? I didn’t always like the idea of not wearing tee shirts under my polo back in high school though and with institutions like these, they always have their rules and regulations to impose and for it to be followed according to the decree. Some of these can be somewhat hard to follow but, for me, these requirements enable us to follow certain rules in our lives thereon and how to deal with them effectively.

Anyway, I don’t want to be serious about going through the idea of living our lives and about sentimental subjects since I’m not that dead serious. I’m simply talking about my alma mater, the University of San Carlos – Technological Center, and several major college schools in Cebu, like University of Cebu, University of Visayas, South Western University and others, that gives us the opportunity to become better persons through learning not just our enrolled courses but also the gravity of significant experiences that we’ll obtain in and out of the school gates. Be it good or bad, the important thing is, we are able to distinguish what sort of chapter we are in and where should we be going next.

Table 7

Location: Lagoon Area of Ayala Center Cebu

First off, you may wonder a bit about what fusion cuisine/food is all about. Some people would think that it is the art of food; some would find it the creativity of food preparation that instills a little bit of blending at least two or three food cultures from any place of the planet. Actually, I researched a little bit about it and found out that those descriptions are true. Would it be nice to put a little bit of Carribean style with a sprinkle of Middle East ingredients and South American menus into something out of the ordinary special plate? Now, that’s way out of the ordinary.

However, I’m not going to delve into its long history since the definition is already there and it could go misleading to my intended subject. Anyway, I was a bit curious about this innovative style of “food art” and thought about trying it. Luckily, my girlfriend was able to spot this restaurant by the Ayala Center lagoon area called Table 7. So, we decided to go and try it out, one evening, to satisfy our curiosity and invest on some self image. The waitresses were accommodating when we arrived and they even let us transfer from table after table since it was too cold inside courtesy of their “full-blast” air conditioning (I don’t mean to be fussy but it was really that cold). Anyway, the waitress gave us the menu and we were able to order right only about 15-20 minutes later since we were asking each other what kind of food is this one and that one. We didn’t want to ask the waitress though since it’s a matter of surprise. So, she ordered the blue marlin and me, the tiger shrimps, since I’m fond of seafoods.

First, they served our soup then our food 20-25 minutes later, which could be forever if you’re alone but I’m with my girlfriend just talking about how great the ambiance is inside. And there on our table, the fine impression of food art was served with its distinctive presentation and the conclusion on what fusion cuisine is all about. Fortunately, me and my girlfriend tried to fathom what the deal is all about since we both know our art aesthetics after 4-5 years of studying Fine Arts. Unfortunately though, my empty tummy made it more complicated so we simply tried it out. My first taste was a bit of confusing since, of course, it’s a mixture of different food cultures. Bite after bite, we were able to finish the whole plate and started staring at each other.

The critique? Fine food and luscious taste with the essence of food innovation and art appreciation doesn’t always please everybody. We were quite pleased, yes… or more, that is, if only their food serving is actually quite filling on first glance, at least for me. But anyway, the idea of food cuisine is, indeed, not for me, my girlfriend and to those who simply like to munch and gulp than the attractiveness or beauty of the menu… but that doesn’t mean that it’s disappointing. It is more of like, in Advertising terms, for the higher target market and for those who anoint food for art.