28 January 2014 - The Sinulog Festival 2014, organized by the Santo Niño de Cebu in Macao Association and the World Day of Migrants and Refugees hosted by the Catholic Pastoral Center in Macau, were held in Macau on January 20.
The Sinulog Festival started in the morning with a Holy Mass at the St. Augustine Church followed by a luncheon for all guests. At 2:00 p.m., a procession and street dancing was held which culminated in a Stage Program at the Plaza do Amizade, near the location of the Philippine Consulate General in Macau, where a huge crowd of Filipinos, Macanese, Chinese, and foreign tourists were waiting for the start of the program with the Sinulog dance contest as its highlight.
The children category had a sole entry while eight contestants competed in the adult category. The Sinulog contestants, dressed in colorful attires, tried their best to outdo each other in performing their choreographed dances to the beat of the Sinulog music to the delight of the crowd. The eventual winner, a group from Hong Kong called The Orient Group, had won the grand prize several times in the past.
The Sinulog Festival is becoming well-known in Macau, with the dailies coming out with write-ups about the event. Philippine Consul General in Macau Danilo Ibayan, who was the festival’s guest speaker during the stage program, was interviewed by TDM, a Portuguese television channel in Macau, about the Sinulog. During the stage program, Philippine Labor Attaché Vivian Tornea gave an inspirational talk and Santo Niño de Cebu in Macao Association President Violeta Duran oversaw the preparations for the festival from start to finish with the help of the different Filipino community associations in Macau.
Meanwhile, the yearly World Migrants Day which is traditionally hosted by the Catholic Pastoral Center, commenced in the morning with a Holy Mass at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral with Bishop Jose Lai of Macau as the main celebrant. Right after the Mass, the food stalls of the different foreign communities in Macau offered for lunch their exotic Asian dishes – Indian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian, Filipino, and Chinese. After the luncheon, a program was held in a nearby Auditorium with presentations from the different Asian and foreign communities – dances, songs, declamations, even magic shows, performed by an Indian priest. The Claretian Publications Macao and the Pastoral Care for Filipino Migrants Catholic Pastoral Center jointly published for the occasion CROSSING THE BORDERS A Centenary Souvenir of Migrants and Refugee Care with, among other articles, messages from Pope Francis, Bishop of Macao Jose Lai, Consul General Ibayan, and a joint message from Labor Attaché Vivian F. Tornea and OWWA Welfare Officer Ramon L.C. Pastrana. END
