Viva Pit Señor

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Managing Editor ANTONIETA B. LOPEZ Business Editor ODETTE MONTELIBANO Desk Editor MARY ANN BARCELONA Advertising Coordinator RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete

ANDRES R. LEONARDIA Managing Director

Hardly have we taken a breather from the long Christmas holidays, and Filipinos - most especially those who are in the Visayas region - brace themselves again this weekend and later this month, for the annual celebration of the feast of the venerated Señor Santo Niño.

Viva Pit Señor! This is the simultaneous battlecry in at least four places in the Visayas - Cebu and Kabankalan with their Sinulog festivals, Iloilo with its Dinagyang Festival, and Kalibo with its Ati-atihan Festival. All these festivals have one primary objective in mind - to honor the Santo Niño or Holy Infant, and to ask for His intercession as we start another year.

Not to be forgotten, too, was the mammoth crowd that paid homage to the Black Nazarene of Quiapo on His feast day on Jan. 9. This year's procession, though, was marred with the untimely death of two devotees - actually an isolated case in the many years of the celebration - who got badly mangled, with one falling into a manhole, because of the ensuing stampede.

In the past years, even with the large crowds that gather at the newly refurbished Quiapo Church to hold vigil, only slight injuries or people getting dizzy with the heat were reported. It has also been gathered that even snatchers, who usually prey on large crowds such as this, go on a holiday respite on the feast of the Black Nazarene. As reports have it, so long as these snatchers and other lawless elements show remorse and ask for pardon, all their sins would be forgiven. What they do on the days that follow is an altogether different story. The unwavering devotion and strong faith of the Filipinos in the Santo Niño is the force that keeps most of us going, even in these tough times.

The Christmas season, likewise, proved that the Filipinos, despite all the difficulties we are facing as a nation, have never ceased to pray, offering their hardships to God and clinging to His promise of salvation. At times, when it seems that all hope is gone, we turn to the Almighty, the Master of our lives, for solace and comfort. So long as we sustain our unfaltering belief in His Omnipotence, all hope is not lost for our country and for ourselves.*