feast of Santo Niño de Cebú

according to wikipedia:) The Santo Niño de Cebú (Spanish: Holy Child of Cebu) is a celebrated Roman Catholic religious vested statue of the Child Jesus venerated by many Filipino Catholics who believe it to be miraculous. Claiming to be the oldest religious image in the Philippines, the statue was originally given in 1521 as a baptismal gift by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan via Antonio Pigafetta, who physically handed it to Lady Humamay, the principal wife of Rajah Humabon, along with a statue of the Our Lady of Guidance and a surviving bust statue of Ecce Homo. The statue is clothed in its distinctive and expensive red manto, and bears regalia that include a gold crown, globus cruciger, and scepter. Much for the details you can find it here.

it has been a tradition way back since i was a child that every third sunday of january we commemorate the feast day of Santo Niño. 

Nine years ago we were asked to donate the replica to our new parish and to make it more beautiful our family pledge to decorate and donate flowers during procession. and the picture above shows how our parish looks like.

my brother being an active youth leader participated in all our parish activities. he was in-charge of the games, the program, poster making and all other activities relative to the feast of santo niño.  

Decorations are being done by the MBGs. all we have to do is to bring flowers, prepare snacks and make sure that the generator is loaded with gas. 

ati-atihan is one of the highlight of the activity. i find it more interesting than poster making but this year i didnt get the chance to watch it because i wake up late and i feel lazy!

since this is a feast of santo niño we bring along Kleo with us. so he can be with his fellow image. kleo has been with our family so many years ago and we love him so much. we did pray to him everyday. kleo is the one wearing a red polo shirt and holding mickey mouse and lollipops. he was been blessed.

the feast of santo niño is also a feast for children. all churchgoers bring a lot of candies and lollipops too. we threw in some thousand pieces of choclates my brother and i bought at the supermarket. this is our way of sharing what we really have.

what i like most in our parish are the decorated glass and ceiling and the altar too. i find it very unique as if we were somewhere in europe. that's why a lot of couples choose our church to be their wedding place. in 2009 doña consuelo chito madrigal donated this church in our place. 

this is how are parish look like outside.

this is mom and i favorite spot in the church. we used to sit here for five years now. mom said why i didnt wear read when everybody are wearing red. i told her mom i dont feel like wearing one.

some of my kins who we loved the most.

a solemn high mass is being conducted here.

while waiting for the final blessing and candy shower!

we pose for our family picture.

we called it knights of the altar pose!

traditional procession of the image.

ati-atihan dancers :)

santo niño image at night. lucky it didnt rain :)

during the procession :)

the young ones!

with the little ones :)

we really had a great time!  Viva Pit Senyor!