By Joseph B.A. Marzan
The first set of events under the 2021 edition of Iloilo City’s Dinagyang Festival were announced at a press conference on Thursday.
This will be the first time the festival will be mounted in a virtual setup due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The festival is spearheaded by the Iloilo Festivals Foundation, Inc. (IFFI) in partnership with the Iloilo City Government, San Jose Parish Placer, and the Cofradia del Sto. Nino de Cebu Iloilo.
The San Jose Parish Placer in City Proper held the first press conference on Thursday to detail the religious activities of the festival.
While Dinagyang is known for the vibrant street performances and nighttime activities, it was originally conceptualized to commemorate the arrival of a replica of the Sto. Niño de Cebu to the city in 1968.
The celebratory mass and the “sadsad” event will continue, while the fluvial procession will be replaced by a motorcade which will run through the city.
The motorcade on Jan. 22, 2021, will carry the “Golden Boy”, the original replica of the Sto. Niño de Cebu brought to Iloilo, through all 7 districts of the city.
This will be followed by the pre-taped virtual “sadsad” which will premiere on Jan. 23, and a pre-taped virtual mass on the morning of Jan. 24.
Both activities will be broadcast via social media platforms.
As to health and safety concerns during the motorcade, coordinator Robert Alor said they are linking with the city’s COVID-19 Task Force and other organizations involved.
The routes of the motorcade have yet to be finalized with city government officials and police officers.
“We will meet with the COVID-19 Task Force and other committees to coordinate on this. This is not an activity of the parish alone but of the whole [Iloilo City], so we will be needing the full cooperation of the military, Red Cross, and whoever we may coordinate with,” Alor said.
Alor also took time to remind the public to be careful and observe minimum health protocols, saying it cannot be up to the festival officials alone.
“This is a roving motorcade, so we just have to remind the people that it is on the roads. We are just asking everyone to be careful, because even if we say it again and again, if we as individuals cannot cooperate, we can’t do anything about it. It will start from us to protect our own bodies,” he added.
He added further that for those who wish to have their Sto. Niño images blessed with holy water, this may be the opportunity for them to bring these images outside of their homes.
“As to the blessing of people’s images, we cannot suggest the people to bring them here at San Jose Parish, but the motorcade part which will rove around the whole of Iloilo City, this is their chance to bring out their new images to be blessed, because the priests and others assigned will be able to bless them while on the road. How they display it for blessing will be up to them because it is their opportunity,” Alor added.
As to the sadsad, Rev. Fr. Leomario Singco of the San Jose Parish Placer said they will still do a limited live “sadsad” within the parish, with medical frontliners such as doctors and nurses to be invited to join.
“On the very day of the schedule, in the parish, we will still do the sadsad but limited, because our priority is safety for everyone. We will be inviting the different representatives of parts of the society, like doctors, and nurses, because sadsad is a prayer dance, a petition to God. Rest assured that the parish will follow the protocols of the [local and national] governments,” Singco said.
San Jose Parish’s Acting Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Jose Gonzales, said that several persons will be allowed into the mass, such as people from the Cofradia, the IFFI, and the city government.
The festival’s spokesperson, Joyce Clavecillas, said that the specific protocols to be observed for the festival will be discussed in the next meetings and press conferences.
Clavecillas also told Daily Guardian via text message that other activities will be released to the media in the coming weeks and in January 2021 leading up to the celebrations.
