There’s much to know about the worship of the Holy Child beyond the merriment and festivities. M.G. REYES enlightens us about the Filipino worship of Santo Niño.
When the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed forth in 1519 in search of a westward route to the Spice Islands, King Charles I of Spain gave him an image of the Santo Niño (Holy Child) to accompany him in his mission. The 11-inch-high icon came from Flanders, Belgium, and depicts Jesus as king and commander-in-chief. He wears a crown and a red military attire complete with metal boots, and holds an orb in one hand and a scepter in the other.
When Magellan landed on Cebu Island, he thought it fitting to give the Santo Niño to Queen Hara Amihan as a gift. Historical accounts say that the queen was moved to tears at the sight of this foreign idol. It must have been a religious experience as Hara Amihan eventually converted to Christianity. So did her husband, Rajah Humabon, and their subjects.
Santo Niños of all kinds and sizes can be seen during the Sinulog, Dinagyang, and Ati-Atihan Festivals.
This Santo Niño is the same icon venerated in the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño in Cebu City. It is the oldest religious image in the Philippines, the only surviving witness of the mass baptisms of the only predominantly Christian nation in Southeast Asia.
Forty-four years later, conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi arrived in Cebu to claim the Philippines as part of Spain. Fire razed the native village during the battle. Later, the Spanish soldier Juan Camus found a partially charred wooden box in the ruins. Inside was an elegantly dressed image of a child-king. It was unquestionably the Santo Niño and it was undoubtedly a miracle that it was unscathed.
Legazpi entrusted the holy image to the care of the Augustinian missionaries who built a temporary sanctuary made of wood and nipa.
The Augustinians kept a record of the miracles attributed to the Santo Niño. Fr. Nicolas de la Cuadra recorded these in a booklet entitled Milagros de Santo Niño. He also started the practice of dressing up the Santo Niño with precious stones, a practice very much alive among wealthy devotees.
The common folk are content to express their devotion through extravagant celebrations of the feast day, which is every third Sunday of January. Fiestas are traditionally observed with nine days of prayers (novenas), processions, Eucharistic celebrations, fireworks, as well as lunch and dinner receptions.
The Santo Niño festival has all these components and more: the re-enactment of the First Mass and baptism of the islanders; the fluvial parade to commemorate the voyage of the Santo Niño from Mexico to Cebu; and the inclusion of traditional or tribal dances in the procession.
The tribal component was included in the 1970s by local festival organizers to recognize the common folk’s pre-Christian practices. These practices exist side by side with Catholic traditions.
Thus, Cebu presented a choreographed version of the sinulog (wavelike movement) as the highlight of their 1978 Santo Niño festival. Their fiesta has since been known as Sinulog Festival.
The Sinulog Festival in Cebu typically starts at 4 a.m., during which thousands of people attend the Mass at the Basilica del Santo Niño. Photo by Erwin Lim. INSET: At any given day, many Cebuanos visit the Santo Niño.
In Kalibo, Aklan, the Santo Niño festival is known as Ati-Atihan, which means make-believe Ati or imitation Ati. The term refers to the brown-skinned Malays who color their faces with soot to show their brotherhood with the darker skinned Ati tribesmen with whom they made a pact. The pact sealed the historic “Barter of Panay” wherein the Ati ceded part of Panay Island to the Malays in exchange for a gold headdress.
Gabriel Casal, O.S.B., wrote in Filipino Heritage that the Santo Niño was introduced to the Ati-Atihan through the intervention of Don Antonio Flores. Flores, the first Spanish encomiendero in Panay, persuaded the two tribal chiefs to dedicate their annual celebration to the Santo Niño in thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest and other blessings. Inevitably, the venerated Santo Niño icon became a fixture in the Ati-Atihan.
The Dinagyang in Iloilo Province is the most popular version of the Santo Niño plus Ati-Atihan festival formula. It is the first to be inducted into the Philippine Hall of Fame by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines for its track record as the best tourism event for three straight years.
