Every Dinagyang Festival, the Santo Niño de Iloilo (maybe this is a replica) is flown to Iloilo. The image was already there in San Jose Church. Since I am in Iloilo, I attended the 7AM mass last Friday 23 January 2015.
San Jose Church Altar
Sto. Niño de Cebu
Batobalani sa Gugma
Just like in Cebu, Novena Masses are celebrated before the Dinagyang Festival (Sunday after the original Sto. Nino feast so that the celbrations will not compete). At the end of the mass, the Gozo to the Sto. Niño, Batubalani sa Gugma is also sung. There are only a few devotees that are waving their hands unlike in Cebu when everybody really sing the song with lots of feelings.
San Jose Church
Old House near San Jose Church
I feel like a tourist taking pictures around Plaza Libertad.
View of the City Hall
Golden Retriever
There are usually dogs that are brought to the plaza every morning for exercise. Golden Retriever with its handler.
Old Steam Engine
This is an old steam engine that was used to haul sugarcane from the fields to the sugar Central, and also raw sugar from the different sugar Centrals in Capiz and Iloilo to Iloilo City. One of the biggest export of Panay many years ago was raw sugar.
In the afternoon, there is a fluvial parade wherein the imagine of Sto. Nino de Cebu is brought from Fort San Perdo to another point in the Iloilo River and a procession is done back to the Church. The dovotees bring along their images of the Sto. Nino. The different competing tribes in the Dinagyang Festival also join the procession with their drummers and one or two warriors in costume.
Procession – Sto. Niño de Cebu
