A parade and dance competition is to be held on the streets of Taipei on Sunday to mark Santo Nino, an annual celebration of the Philippines’ Catholic history, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office said on Wednesday.
Usually held on the third Sunday in January, Santo Nino is celebrated in commemoration of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 bringing a statue of the baby Jesus as a baptismal gift to Hara Amihan, the wife of the ruler of the the Rajahnate of Cebu in what is now the central Philippines.
For this year’s holiday, the office and the Taipei City Government have coorganized the event under the banner “Santo Nino Beats for Peace Festival: In My Circular World,” which is to showcase Philippine religious traditions and culture, the office said in a statement.
The gift of the Jesus statue is one of the most important events in the religious history of the Philippines, as it paved the way for the spread of Christianity in the country, it added.
Fourteen groups are to take part in the event, which would start with a parade at 1:30pm from St Christopher’s Church on Zhongshan N Road, the office said.
The parade would then head toward Linsen N Road, Nongan Street and then back to Zhongshan N Road, before assembling at 4pm at the Taipei Expo Park for an awards ceremony, it said.
The event would be the biggest Philippine culture-related parade and street dance event since the Taipei Masskara Festival in September 2020, in which about 1,200 people took part.
Known as the “Festival of Smiles,” Masskara has become one of the Philippines’ most celebrated and colorful events since it was first held in Bacolod in the 1980s.
As of the end of last year, there were 141,808 Philippine migrant workers in Taiwan, making them the third-largest group of migrant workers in the nation after Indonesians and Vietnamese, Ministry of Labor data showed.
For more information on Sunday’s event, visit the Manila Economic and Cultural Office’s Facebook page.
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