OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE PROVINCE OF ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY     SIBUGAY AT SINULOG 2012!   The nation is once again very excited about the famous Sinulog Festival which is yearly held every third Sunday of January in Cebu City. According to historians and experts, the festival commemorates the Cebuano people's pagan origin, and their acceptance of Roman Catholicism. The festival features a street parade with participants in bright colored costumes dancing to the rhythm of drums, trumpets and native gongs. Smaller versions of the festival are held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. Recently, the festival has been promoted as a tourist attraction, with a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. Data presented by Wikipedia shows that the Sinulog celebration lasts for nine days, culminating on the final day with the Sinulog Grand Parade. The day before the parade, the Fluvial Procession is held at dawn with a statue of the Santo Niño carried on a pump boat from Mandaue City to Cebu City, decked with hundreds of flowers and candles. The procession ends at the Basilica where a re-enactment of the Christianizing (that is, the acceptance of Roman Catholicism) of Cebu is performed. In the afternoon, a more solemn procession takes place along the major streets of the city, which last for hours due to large crowd participating in the event. Different history books about the Sinulog Festival tells that The word Sinulog comes from the Cebuano adverb sulog which roughly means "like water current movement;" it 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 drums. The Sinulog dance steps are believed to originate from Rajah Humabon's adviser, Baladhay. It was during Humabon's grief when Baladhay was driven sick. Humabon ordered his native tribe to bring Baladhay into a room where the Santo Niño was enthroned, along with the other pagan gods of the native Cebuanos. After a few days passed, Baladhay was heard shouting and was found dancing with utmost alertness. Baladhay was questioned as to why was he awake and shouting. Pointing to the image of the Santo Niño, Baladhay explained that he had found on top of him a small child trying to wake him and tickling him with the midrib of the coconut. Greatly astonished, he scared the child away by shouting. The little child got up and started making fun of Baladhay. In turn, Baladhay danced with the little child and explained that he was dancing the movements of the river. To this day, the two-steps forward, one-step backward movement is still used by Santo Niño devotees who believe that it was the Santo Niño's choice to have Baladhay dance. (Wikipedia.com) This year, Zamboanga Sibugay officially admitted an entry to the prestigious street dancing competition of the Sinulog Festival with the hope that the province’s contingents would give honor and pride to Sibugay by placing a spot in the said competition. The contingents are from the municipality of Naga and they were the same group who won 1st place in the Kagay-an Festival Street Dancing Competition in Cagayan de Oro City last year. With the full support of the provincial government of Zamboanga Sibugay and all the Sibugaynons, the dancers hope to win it big during the Sinulog Festival 2012. Winning or not in the competition, being an official entry is already a great honor for the Sibugaynons and the Sibugaynons are surely proud of their contingents. Win or lose, they remain Sibugay’s pride and honor. The Sinulog Festival definitely hits the international spotlight but the Naga Street Dancers will hit our SPOTLIGHT in this issue.