Our devotion to the Señor Sto. Niño goes as far as my childhood memories can take me.
Being a Sugbuanon myself, I grew up in a household where our parents would take us to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu, and being an obedient child, I would go together with my sister and two brothers without asking questions about who He is and why do we have to go as often as we can, especially every Friday of the month. I can still smell the sweat while wading through the crowd of devotees to kiss the Señor, the burning candles and some old folks dressed in red skirt and old fashion Filipino top asking us “magpa-Sinulog mo?” which is equal to saying, “I’ll dance the Sinulog for you, state your intentions to the Sto. Niño and pray for your family.” After which my dad would hand her few pesos as payment and she in return, gave us the three the red candles she used in dancing. Then on to the mass inside the Basilica (yes, that time mass was inside the basilica not outside), and again the smell of sweat and burnt candles assaulting my senses while I attempted to pray the best that I can in my own childish ways. Honestly, I cannot even remember the prayers I used to pray but maybe except that I wanted a balloon and donut afterwards. Poverty is a great thing, for in the absence of these gifts I longed for, I still have the memory of the basilica and the Señor hanging over my head until we come back again next week.
High school days in the 80’s were a bit different. Instead of discos and concerts, we went to Church more often and prayed frequently at the Basilica. In my 4th year of high school, Holy Rosary School of Pardo (HRSP) decided to enter the Sinulog competition and we were asked to practice the Sinulog dance a lot of times before January 1988. There were probably a hundred of us from school who practiced and eventually danced. On the day of the Sinulog, it was scorching hot and we were all wearing black tsinelas and if I’m not mistaken red pants and long camisa de chino together with bamboo poles for our ‘ritual’ dance (which is basically for the eyes of the judges to impress them). We danced the whole day all over the streets of Colon, Junquera, Sergio Osmeña Boulevard, Gen. Maxilom Avenue and I think we passed by Carbon too. The main presentation was at Abellana and there we heaved a good sigh after a gruelling all-day Sinulog dance. Our school won first place for high school category, yay! It was worth it I supposed.
My formative years as a teenager (then as an adult) were spent in the Dominican Seminary of Calamba, Manaoag and Quezon City from 1987 to 1994. After finishing my Philosophy degree from Philippine Dominican Centre of Institutional Studies (PDCIS) in 1994, I decided to apply for a break from the seminary (this we call regency) after having my simple vows. In between my seminary days, I would go home to Cebu usually in December and January when our family budget would allow, and there rekindle my love for the Holy Child.
But times have changed. When I went back once in late 1980’s, I first heard of the song Batobalani sa Gugma and witnessed the raising of hands. The same song in fact appeared in the 1809 Spanish version. I was both amused and confused: amused at how simple and beautiful the song is and somehow made me cry; but also confused, “why do we have to raise our hands at the chorus part?” So I half-raised my right hand to go in-between what was practiced by most faithful. I was not sure if I was ashamed to do it; all I knew was that it was a bit awkward since I was not used to it. During that time in my seminary years, I began asking a lot of questions on our Catholic faith, especially questions revolving around popular religiosity and whether they are valid or not and the reason behind its validity or rejection.
I left the seminary in 1994 and worked as a teacher in the university once, then mostly as an NGO worker prior to my offer of scholarship under Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid) for my master’s degree in Human Resources in 1998.
Before leaving for Melbourne in 1998, Angelica had been my fiancée for a year. Truth be told, Angelica was my grade school classmate and lived in the area near Inayawan. Once we visited the Cebu Cathedral as friends and we were praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament when she answered my prayer with a yes. On that day when I went in and prayed at the Cathedral as a young man hoping to win the love of his life, I got out as “spiritually married” to Angelica for life. In front of the Blessed Sacrament, she kindly asked me for a vow. That vow is still there after 24 years as married couple.
The novena mass to Sto. Niño in Cranbourne started in 2021 during the pandemic times. The Sinulog at Clayton was somehow ‘suspended’ due to pandemic regulations and wanting to celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, we had a chat with our parish priest who is intrigued about the celebration of the Holy Child. I was with a group of Cebuano friends in one of the Simbang Gabi masses in December 2020 when Fr. Joseph Abutu, our parish priest, asked us about the devotion to the Holy Child known popularly as Sinulog. I tried to explain to Fr. Joseph the difference between the two. There was not much activity going on that time due to COVID-19, when again the day after, the same group of Cebuano friends had a chat with Fr. Joseph in regard to the devotion. I promised our good priest to deliver on the liturgy and novena, together with the dances and drums. Giomel Pardillo and Tulip Ramirez approached me to organise their respective groups (drums and dance). Our other couple-friends like Harold/Raye Mollaneda, Ronan/Lyn Montera, and Nelia/Al Ciar, promised to organise the Sinulog festivities. That year, Nelia Ciar, volunteered to become our Sinulog Queen with barely a fortnight to come up with costume and dance. Our Sinulog chairman, Harold Mollaneda, did well in organising the faithful to run the actual Sinulog fiesta despite the challenges of COVID-19, one of which is the online booking. We were blessed with an IT guy, Ronan Montera, who was able to come up a with suitable IT infrastructure for mass bookings, including the limited number of people allowed in the Church and at the fiesta ground. Our parish IT person named Shyam also made the novena masses available to the rest of the faithful via livestreaming. The parish of St. Agatha became a ground for worship and Sinulog festivities that year in 2021. Lechon packs were served, Sinulog dances were performed, people gathered and had fellowship at the height of the pandemic. At the end, we had a community Sinulog dance together with our priests (Frs. Joseph, Andrew and Anthony), our new consul general Lourdes Salcedo and the whole community. It was a miracle of sorts: a group of devotees, $300 seed money from Simbang Gabi collection and the community effort behind the worship of the Holy Child. Like the faith noticed by the tax collector Matthew (Mt 17:20-21), faith indeed can move mountains.
The journey of faith continues for us Filipino Melburnians. In 2022, the Santo Niño Foundation of Australia Inc. (SNFAI) was finally incorporated. Its sole purpose of existence is to promote the devotion of Señor Santo Niño and hopefully inspire the creation of a shrine dedicated to the Holy Child, upon whose blessing we rely on time and again.
