The "Hubo" ritual, or the undressing of the Sto. Niño image, takes place five days after the Grand Sinulog Parade held every 3rd Sunday of January.
Hubo is the Cebuano word for "to undress". During the mass, priests ceremonially remove the festival garments of the image, bath the image in water laced with perfume, and don the image with ordinary vestments. According to Catholic tradition, the change of garments to less decorated ones symbolizes spiritual change within a person. The order of removal is as follows:
The bathing of the child Jesus also has significant meaning. When the image undergoes bathing, it symbolizes purification and cleansing to "renew ties with God". The water used to wash the image is then referred to as "holy water." However, many devotees try to ascribe the said water with magical and miraculous powers, to the disapproval of priests. According to the clergy, the holy water ought to bring adherents to a spirit of prayer, not heal any ailments and cure diseases automatically.
The new, ordinary garments are also used to elicit prayer. Every piece of clothing is taken to signify an event of Jesus’ life, and a prayer is recited for it.
Catholic Cebuanos believe that just as the Sinulog festival closes the Christmas season, the Hubo mass also closes the week-long fiesta and opens the Lenten season. In the past, the Hubo ritual was held behind closed doors by Augustinian friars and select women. After the public learned of the closed ritual, the church finally made the ceremony public in 1990. Any church or parish is permitted to hold the ritual if it wishes to.
Be one with the Cebuanos as they celebrate the “HUBO” mass ritual at the Basilica del Sto. Niño, at 4 a.m. on January 22, 2010.
The Sto. Niño Fluvial Parade is a significant and mainstay event of the yearly Cebu Sinulog Celebration.
Every year, hundreds of devotees brave the rather turbulent waters of the Mactan Channel to show their devotion to the miraculous image of the Sto. Niño by accompanying the image through its short voyage. The lively flotilla starts from the image’s home in the Basilica Minore de Sto. Niño, takes its course along the channel, and ends at the St. Joseph Parish in Mandaue City, a sister city of Cebu. The Sinulog is deemed not complete without this holy, aquatic procession.
It has always been a tradition for the image of the Child Jesus to visit his foster father, St. Joseph, at the Mandaue parish before the grand day of festivities. Believers and devotees from all walks of life and from different municipalities of Cebu hold a vigil while the image stays at the parish for one day and night.
After the overnight stay, the image travels on its ceremonial “galleon” to the nearby island of Mactan, in order to reenact the coming of the image from the Spaniards nearly five centuries ago.
While the procession is solemn at its heart, there are accompanying drum beats, yells, cheers, fireworks, and sirens, all coming from the lively crowd trailing from the main boat. True-to-heart devotees do not seem perturbed at all by the racket going on around them, merely accepting the cacophony of sounds to be part of the ritual. It’s quite a visual feast for the foreigners and shutterbugs who regularly escort the convoy, riding decorated and retrofitted barges, motorized outriggered boats, yachts, and small catamarans. If that’s not enough, helicopters from a nearby Air Force base occasionally buzz around dropping petals on the procession.
Whatever vantage point you’re at, the Sto. Niño Fluvial Parade is quite a sight to behold.
The "Hubo" ritual, or the undressing of the Sto. Niño image, takes place five days after the Grand Sinulog Parade held every 3rd Sunday of January.
