Events and Happenings in Cebu

Cebu City boasts of colourful festivals throughout the year. And what better way to highlight each event than to zoom in on the variety of foods. Probably the most popular event in Cebu, where tourists and overseas Cebuano workers flock to is the Sinulog Festival. During the third Sunday of January, the Sinulog beat can be heard throughout every street in Cebu City. Colourful costumes, extremely loud noises, face paints... these are what you will find in Cebu’s busy streets. As the Sinulog parade will last the whole day, traffic will be rerouted and this will often prove to be irritating for drivers.

During the Sinulog festivities, so popular are the street foods such as fish balls, tempura, hotdog stands and fruit juice stands. Fast foods are usually packed during this time too.

The Lenten Season is not exactly what I would call festive, but it is the best time to do some soul searching.  Many events are launched in Cebu in conjunction with Lent, such as penitential processions, praying in groups, fasting and others.  During Easter, a lot of churches have this “sugat” or a re-enactment of the resurrection of Jesus.  During lent, native foods are often served such as budbud, chocolate, binignit and others.

Around June every year, it has become a practice for most major malls to conduct a 3-day mallwide sale.  Malls are usually packed during these times, and so are the mall food stalls. Halloween, in Cebu is not such a big event, since it comes too close to All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day.  On November 1 and 2, people flock to cemeteries in Cebu and remember the dead.  Often, they bring food in the cemetery, too.

Finally, the most joyous, festive event in Cebu City is none other than Christmas.  The air is often thick with Christmas joy and often, you see fruit cakes sold on every store, queso de bola, ham, spaghetti and fruit salads.  Food is abundant during this season.