By Neil Daculan – Deacon of the Archdiocese of Melbourne
19 January 2022
December and January are very busy months for the Filipino Catholic faithful because of two (2) momentous annual celebrations: the Simbang Gabi (dawn masses) in December and then Sto. Niño in January. Both are votive masses for nine (9) days: votive, being that these are masses offered for a votum, a Latin word which means ‘special intention.’ These are also considered novena masses: the novena to the Blessed Virgin when she carried her Son in her womb; and to the Holy Child, although his account in the Gospels are quite scant, with the historical eye of Luke (2:41-52) capturing his story as the boy Jesus was ‘seemingly’ lost in the temple.
There’s a story common among the Cebuanos that the Sto. Niño (Holy Child) always gets lost. In the Santo Tomas de Villanueva Parish in Pardo (Cebu) for instance, I grew up hearing the story of a female fish vendor who sold a kilo of tulingan (mackerel) to a little boy and the boy told the fish vendor to collect the payment from the kura paroko (parish priest). True enough, the vendor went to the parish priest, only to be told that the kura never asked anyone to buy a kilo of mackerel on his behalf. Upon investigation, they found out inside the church that the cheeky Sto Niño was holding the plastic containing the fish. Apparently, it was the Sto. Niño himself who bought the fish. Hence, every year in January, when some random boy would ask a fish vendor for a kilo of mackerel without payment, the vendors would give the boy what he asked for as a sign of offering to the Holy Child. Maybe, some street urchins would capitalise on this for free meal, considering the poverty in the area during those times.
Last 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, these celebrations were whittled down to bare minimum. The 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, a celebration that most Cebuanos anticipated to be grand, noisy and festive, was left either on YouTube or Zoom. Livestreaming masses became the in-thing and all celebratory plans – be it civic or religious – have been curtailed for fear of becoming a spreader event for the dreaded virus. Around that time, Philippines had had at least a million cases and thousand deaths, hospitals almost reaching its 100% capacity and crematoriums could not accommodate dead bodies to be cremated due to virus.
Another beautiful story unfolded in St. Agatha Parish in Cranbourne, Victoria. The Filipino Catholics of the parish celebrated its first Simbang Gabi on December 2018 and this became an annual novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Flocking to the Church at 5 o’clock in the morning, the parish priest Fr. Joseph Abutu, was amazed to find out on the first dawn mass in 2018 that the Church was almost full. This went on for nine (9) mornings and finally he realised the faith of the Filipinos.
Fast forward in December 2020 when the pandemic was raging and Fr. Joseph could not go to Nigeria for his annual holiday and visit to his family, the kind-hearted priest revisited the ‘whispers’ among the Cebuanos about the novena to the Sto. Niño. That ‘whisper’ gathered momentum until it eventually reached ‘fever pitch’ after the novena to the Blessed Virgin. Maybe the Blessed Virgin Mary planned it that way: there’s no way she would let us miss the celebration for her Son, our Saviour! Especially in a time of need, when prayers need to be heard both in the public square and inside the churches!
The Cebuanos gathered and met with their parish priest: another votive novena mass was planned and a new Sinulog Committee was born. This novena will be both religious and festive, drumbeats and colourful costumes, singing and waving of hands to the gozos aptly titled Batobalani sa Gugma (Magnet of Love). The original joy (gozos) of the incarnation of the Son of God expressed in our Blessed Virgin Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), found its way in the popular religiosity of the Cebuanos: the novena to the Sr. Sto. Niño in St. Agatha’s Parish Cranbourne ‘was made flesh’ and celebrated in their midst.
The novena mass of the Sr. Sto. Niño started on the 8th of January and ended on the ninth day, 16th January 2021. The Feast of the Sr. Sto. Niño and the Sinulog Festival culminated on the 17th of January 2021 with the holy sacrifice of the mass, procession and the usual pageantry of festivities, prepared by the indefatigable Sinulog Committee headed by Harold Mollaneda. Due to pandemic, IT arrangements were made to reflect the number of people allowed inside the church and during the outdoor celebrations. Ronan Montera made an excellent set-up of the infrastructure and trained young people how to enroll the faithful so they could join the celebrations. There were two (2) sets of Sinulog dancers – offerers to the Holy Child during the celebration of the mass – composed of the mature women dancers and the kabataan (young – below 12 years old) group. The drum section was formed and coordinated by Giomel Pardillo, himself a devotee from Naga (Cebu).
The Sto. Niño story continued outside of the shores of Cebu, faced with the challenges of the pandemic. The Eucharistic celebration is mostly attended by Filipinos but other nationalities joined in: Samoans, Indians and Aussies alike celebrate. Finally, Mary’s son, the child Jesus, is at the centre of the celebration! There were more loud cries (the Viva Pit Señors!) heard in the parish than anywhere in Australia. This viva reverberated more than the virus, and for nine (9) days fear dissipated in the air of prayerful cries.
This year 2022 has a different flavour to it. For one, the Sinulog Committee is headed by women of faith: Madeleine Hidalgo, herself a Cebuana and a nurse; and Beth Avila, another Cebuana and loves to sing in a mass choir. They faced difficult challenges since the virus has mutated into the Omicron strain, the most infectious so far. There were three (3) groups of dancers headed by Tulip Ramirez, Priscila Zhang and Miriam Bacolod. The Sinulog Queen in 2022 was prayerfully done through draw lots and blessed by Fr. Joseph: Teresa Mabitad was chosen among several contenders. There was also the Kabataan dancers, a group of young kids aged 12 and below with their own princess, Justine de la Torre.
COVID Infection was rampant and while the Committee hatched a plan sometime November 2021, one by one the dancers and drummers got infected and had to quarantine. Fr. Joseph decided to finally go to Nigeria for a much-anticipated visit to his family but Fr. Stanly Devasia, his assistant, went down badly because of the virus. Some families had to beg off from coming to the actual mass and settled via livestream due to the community infection. But there was one resolution that the community of faithful committed to: celebrate the novena mass of the Holy Child because His blessing knows no virus strain. There were days where no priest could celebrate the mass but somehow the hand of the Holy Child guided these priests to celebrate them for the community who thirsted more-than-anything for His blessing. The mass was completed for nine (9) days and we are grateful for these priests who found their way to St. Agatha Parish and preached the good news brought by the Holy Child: fathers Andrew Madry, Novie Lim, Percy Sevare OSA, Antony Rebelo, Confidence Masvosva and Michael Willemsen. Fr. Stanly Devasia, the Assistant Parish Priest of St. Agatha, finally recovered on the last day of the novena and presided the mass on the 9th day and the fiesta mass the following day.
There were so many blessings to recount, like having an official photographer Van Castillo whose shots captured the beauty of the celebration, dances and prayers. The holy sacrifice of the mass had family and company sponsors and while we did have a fellowship dinner after each mass in 2021, the 2022 is a little subdued, focusing more on prayers and the invocations of Viva Pit Señor. There are numerous people – some anonymous – that I would like to mention but I know their names are engraved in the heart of the Holy Child and his Mother. They have faces, names and smiles that I may not portray in this short reflection but are etched in-between these words I conjured to paint a two-edged reality of faith and challenges.
On days that I prayed to the Holy Child in the Church after the mass and when everyone had gone home, there was a sense of serenity in my heart. I know it is not pride to but joy: joy in worship and believing in people’s goodness despite their own brokenness, and in mine too. In this contemplation, I remember the words of the prophet Isaiah (9:2): “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…”
The Señor Santo Niño has brought the light to us here in the outskirts of Melbourne: at St. Agatha’s Parish in Cranbourne, the Diocese of Sale.