Devotees hold Sinulog in Kansas
Celebrating the Fiesta Señor helps them retain, sustain connection to Filipino culture
THEY are thousands of miles away from Cebu, but devotees of the Sto. Niño in Topeka, Kansas, USA, find no reason not to celebrate the Sinulog.
Last Jan. 12, Cebuanos and other Visayans staged the “Sinulog sa Topeka” to celebrate the annual feast of the Sto. Niño. They prayed, performed the traditional Sinulog dance and enjoyed a banquet at a local church.
Prior to the event, they held a houseto-house novena for nine nights, following the tradition of the Fiesta Señor.
“The Cebuanos and other Visayans who spearhead the Sinulog sa Topeka find it meaningful and nourishing, spiritually and culturally, to make ourselves, our children and our Pinoy community to retain and sustain our connection to the culture we left behind,” said Sun.Star Cebu columnist Myke Obenieta, one of the organizers of the event.
Contribution
The Sinulog sa Topeka has grown since its inception in 2011.
“It was initiated by a group of friends who missed the Sinulog celebration in Cebu and decided to party with a Sinulog theme in our apartment complex’s social hall. Along with a few invited guests, there were only like 30 of us who dined and danced after the prayer to the Sto. Nino. Because we had such a good time, we decided to officially ‘declare’ a Sinulog sa Topeka in 2012 to be held by one of the Catholic churches in our city,” he said.
They pitched in money to stage the event at the Christ the King Church in 2012. They invited Filipino-Americans and Americans who did not necessarily belong to their circle of friends. The following year, their guests volunteered to contribute money and helped them stage a bigger event at the Most Pure Heart of Mary Church, which drew Filipinos living outside of Topeka.
This year, they held the Sinulog event a week earlier than the Sinulog in Cebu because their venue--the St. Matthew Church and its social hall--had a prior reservation for a parishioner’s group of Mexican-Americans.
Obenieta, who has been living in the US with his wife and two sons since 2007, said their “micro version” of Sinulog has been drawing the largest group of attendees compared to other Filipino gatherings for special occasions like the annual Christmas party in Topeka.
Cebuanos in other parts of the US, most notably Florida, also hold annual Sinulog events.
Sinulog organizers in Florida, among them Dr. Tito Alquizola, a Barili, Cebu native who used to have a column in Sun. Star Weekend, made history as the first immigrants of any nationality to have built a Sto. Niño Shrine in the US.
Organizing Sinulog events, Obenieta said, “comforts us with the warmth of assurance that we’re still part of the home country as long as we maintain some cultural practices that are distinctly our own, like the Sinulog, even though we have been geographically dislocated.” Resources Not all Cebuanos can go to Cebu during Sinulog because of their work or lack of resources.
By holding Sinulog activities, Obenieta said, they make sure their children will not forget their roots.
How is celebrating Sinulog abroad different from what they were used to in Cebu?
“Because we are motivated more toward satisfying a basic need to celebrate our faith and Pinoy tradition while having fun in the process, our celebration tends to be more inward unlike in Cebu where there’s so much spectacle and commercialism that gets in the way of internalizing the spirit of the Sinulog with less cynicism and stress,” Obenieta said.
Apart from being able to celebrate the feast of Sto. Niño, Obenieta said the event has also provided a venue for Cebuanos and other Filipinos in Topeka to bond and strengthen their kinship and collective spirit.
“Filipinos in Topeka and elsewhere in the States rarely have time to be together due to the demands of earning a living in a foreign land and considering as well the very structured way of life here that rarely allows elbow room for unscheduled or spontaneous camaraderie,” he said.
“An event like the Sinulog can be perfect for keeping us grounded to the fact that fate may take the Filipino out of the country, but it can never take the country out of the Filipino.”