There are many festivals in the Province of Cebu.
Sinulog
The Sinulog Festival is the largest fiesta (festival) in the Philippines. Held every third Sunday of January, it commemorates the Child Jesus (Santo Niño), the Lord and Protector of Cebu. The Sinulog is a dance ritual of pre-Hispanic indigenous origin. The dancer moves two steps forward and one step backward to the rhythmic sound of drums. This movement resembles the current (sulog) of what was then known as Cebu's Pahina River. Thus the name Sinulog.
The Sinulog Festival celebration starts with the Penitential Walk With Jesus lasts for nine days, culminating on the final day with the Sinulog Grand Parade. On the Thursday and Friday before the Fiesta Señor, there is a Penitential Walk With Mary and the Translacion of the Santo Niño and Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Joseph in his National Shrine in Mandaue City and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Rule of Opon in Lapu-Lapu City. The day before the parade, the Fluvial Procession is held at dawn with a statue of the Santo Niño, the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph carried on a pump boat from Lapu-Lapu City to Cebu City, decked with hundreds of flowers and candles. The procession ends at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño where a re-enactment of the Christianization of the Philippines on the island of Cebu is performed. In the afternoon, a more solemn procession takes place along the major streets of the city, which last for hours due to large crowds participating in the event.
When the Spaniards arrived in Cebu, the Italian chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, sailing under convoy with the Magellan expedition, offered the wooden figure of the Santo Niño as a baptismal gift to Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon who was named Juana after her baptism together with the Rajah, who was also renamed, Carlos. Juana, together with the natives, according to tradition, danced and worshipped the Santo Niño de Cebu in their indigenous Sinulog dance ritual. According to legend, the Rajah's adviser, Baladhay, had fallen ill and was bedridden. The Rajah ordered his men to place Baladhay before the image of Santo Niño hoping that the Holy Child would heal him. The next day, the whole Kingdom of Sugbo was awoken to an angry Baladhay who was threatening the Child with a grass knife, appearing to have also fully recovered from his illness. When the Rajah asked him why he was threatening the Child, he told the Rajah that the Child Jesus had mischievously woken him up with a coconut midrib. Irritated by the Child, he grabbed his knife and threatened the Child by swaying the grass knife at the Child, but the Child simply evaded the knife by dancing. Because the Child was so swift at evading the knife, he had no choice but to dance with the Child as well to keep up his pace. He also explained that the Child's dance resembled the river current. Baladhay is believed to be the first person to dance the Sinulog. The Sinulog ritual was preserved after the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, with the focus still on the worship to the Santo Niño. Once the Santo Niño church was built in the 16th century, the Catholic Malay people started performing the Sinulog ritual in front of the church, the devotees offering candles and indigenous dancers shouting "Viva Pit Señor!", which means to "Trust in the Lord".
In the province, the festival is shared by both Cebu City and Carmen. The festival is said to have originated in Carmen and was once a localized version of the Ati-atihan Festival introduced by Jose Motos, the then rector of the Parish of St. Augustine, the town parish of Carmen, but was then changed to "Sinulog sa Carmen" after Sinulog became an established Cebuano festival. The Sinulog dance was first introduced to Cebu City by a woman named Estelita Diola, who would otherwise be referred to as "Titang Diola". Her family was skilled with the original form of the dance of Sinulog and the tradition was eventually passed on to her by her father. Because of her great contribution and propagation of the Sinulog dance of Cebu, she was referred to as the "Heritage Keeper". The original Sinulog dance and her legacy of devotion to the Child Jesus through dancing continues today even after her death and is still continued through her former students who now teach the youth of Cebu the original dance moves of Sinulog. Sinulog had since very much diversified from the original dance of Titang Diola. Today we can see the Sinulog danced every day at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño performed by the candle vendors. The version they perform is called "Sinug" and is only for worship and prayer to bless the candles for prayers to the Holy Child. The Sinulog Festival dance performed by contingents in the City Sports Center is still religious and devotional since dancers often include personal supplications, petitions, thanksgivings, intercessions, or any other prayers in their dance for the Child Jesus and their dance performances in street dance and ritual showdown are still centered on the Holy Child. There are mainly two types of Sinulog dances performed in the festival, namely the "Sinulog-Based Category" and the "Free Interpretation Category". The Sinulog-Based Category refers to the Sinulog dance based on the Church Sinulog performed by candle vendors while the Free Interpretation Category refers to the Sinulog dance interpreted in any way, outside Church Sinulog, for as long as it is acceptable in the festival. In recent years, the festival gained commercialization which made the festival and Cebu popular, but unfortunately lessened the religious nature of the festival. Despite the extreme commercialization of the festival, Sinulog still remains to be a religious festival for the faithful. Sinulog still remains to be a dance of prayer. The festival is officially governed by the Sinulog Foundation Incorporated (SFI). The foundation maintains that, although Sinulog has largely become mainstream, it remains a religious festival because at the heart of the Sinulog is the Santo Niño. The foundation has made this point clear in many instances, such as the correction of the wrongful term "Sinulog Grand Mardi Gras" to "Sinulog Grand Parade" as the focus was not on the fanfare but the worship to the Child Jesus.
In the 1980s and 2000s, the city authorities of Cebu added the religious feast of Santo Niño de Cebu during the Sinulog Festival to its cultural event. Despite being a religious festival and a Christian festival, Sinulog has come to be a celebration for all Cebuanos and Filipinos regardless of their faith and practices. Aside from its religious nature, Sinulog has also become renowned for its street parties. In 2012, Cebu introduced Life Dance, the biggest outdoor dance party in the Philippines. The Sinulog street parties are considered a major attraction for youth individuals but, in most cases for most people, particularly the faithful, a growing problem that threatens the religiosity and solemnity of the festival. In 2016, the festival had the worst recorded case of a stampede wherein large groups of people, both worshippers and drunken party-goers, were congested in the uptown area, with no passable exit routes and virtually no crowd control up until midnight and with one recorded case of a teenage woman losing consciousness because of cramped spaces. Due to this incident, the then Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña enforced a strict liquor ban in the following festivals during his term to ensure the safety of the worshippers and spectators and to maintain the solemnity of the celebration.
The festival was halted for two years (2021 and 2022). In 2021, the main reason for halting the festival was because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vice Mayor of Cebu at the time, Michael Rama, who was the-then chairperson of the SFI, insisted on having a Sinulog Festival that year, despite health concerns from health experts and the police from Cebu City. This came shortly after Cebu City's then Mayor, the late Edgardo Labella, dissolving the Sinulog Governing Body (SGB), which Rama protested against through his resignation from the foundation, and reinstating him as chairperson of the SFI. Rama cited that the venue of that year's supposed festival was at the parking lot of SM Seaside City Cebu and would be in a "bubble environment" without a live audience. He even went as far as to limit the number of dancers and the propsmen. He continued to insist on holding the festival, largely against the behest of the Cebuanos. Various health workers and police officials stated that even though the dancers were isolated, the fact that there were multiple individuals gathering in a closed environment, and in close contact with each other, was already a "direct violation of the health protocols". This also included the gathering of dancers during their practices. As a result, several dancers from various contingents in Cebu City tested positive for COVID-19 and most of the infected individuals showed the common symptoms. This led to Rama officially retracting his movement for Sinulog 2021. However, the other minor related competitions of the Sinulog, such as the Search for the Sinulog Festival Queen were still pushed through. The festival was slated for a comeback in 2022, but was again cancelled due to the aftermath of Super Typhoon Odette, which ravaged Cebu and nearby islands.