Cebu's Sinulog festival & Parade

An annual event that takes place on the THIRD SUNDAY of JANUARY to climax the week-long observance of Pasundayag sa Sinulog is Cebu City's Sinulog festival parade.

At noon, a great and nearly hour-long parade begins as gaily decorated floats -- covered in flowers and orchids -- and throngs of colorfully-costumed people, marching, dancing, and singing, make their way through the streets of Cebu City. The participants all dance down the street using a unique "Sinulog step," chanting & singing, accompanied by a shrill, rhythmic whistle blast accompaniment while shouting "Pit Senyor," meaning "viva el Senor" or "long live Santo Nino" -- the Christ Child.

This great Filipino celebration event would be comparable to the annual Mardi Gras parade held in the American city of New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro's Carnival in Brazil, but without the sexual overtones.

Cebu's Sinulog festival is a much more conservative & religious event drawing thousands of spectators and tourits from around the world as well as being an annual home-coming reunion event for many Filipinos.

Additional Web-Sites of Interest

In addition to the wonderful Blog "an American in the Philippines," additional web-addresses I follow that other readers might find of interest include: http://cebu.craiglist.com.ph/apa/ re: private property in the Phiippines listed For Sale on Craig's list and http://cebuexperience.com/ re: expats living in Cebu province.

Another Great Site regarding expats around the entire world is

http://www.expat-blog.com/

The EXPAT

EXPAT is an abreviated reference to expatriate, a foreigner resident, a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country or within a culture other than where that person was originally native or born and raised -- sometimes mistaken with "EX-PATRIOT" but this is derived from the Latin, EX - out of - and PATRIA - country or fatherland. Some famous examples of American EXPATRIATES would include writer Ernest Hemingway living first in Spain during that country's civil war and later in Paris, France during WWII; African-American singer and entertainer Josephine Baker living in Paris during the 1920s; and rock musician Jim Morrison living in Paris during the 1960s.
According to the U.S. State Department there are now over 250,000 U.S. citizens currently living in the Philippines.