sinulog is coming to town

Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festival in the Philippine. The main festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Nino, or the child Jesus, who used to be the patron saint of the whole province of CEBU (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is essentially a dance ritual that remembers the Filipino people's pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity.

The festival features some the country's most colorful displays of pomp and pageantry: participants garbed in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums,trumpet, and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Nino. There is also a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.

Recently, the cultural event has been commercialized as a tourist attraction and instead of traditional street-dancing from locals, Sinulog also came to mean a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog Contest is traditionally held in the Cebu City Sports complexs where most of Cebu's major provincial events are held.

fall in love with someone....

Since I met you,

I've fallen in love with you

at least a hundred times

for a hundred different reasons.

Sometimes I fall in love with you

when I watch you doing something you enjoy,

something you're so involved in that

you're unaware of my presence.

Sometimes I fall in love with you

when I listen to you talk to other people.
Whether you're being interesting and funny

or warm and caring and genuinely concerned,

you have a way of making people feel better

with nothing more than words.
Sometimes I fall in love with you

just thinking about you,

remembering all the memories we've made...

falling in love for the first time,staying in love during the rough times,

finding more to love about each other every day.

And whenever I think about the wonderful things that lie ahead of us,

I fall totally and completely in love with youall over again.

just a simple tree

When fall strokes it's brush upon them, the leaves begin to die,to make sure the tree can stay alive, each must say goodbye.This coat of colors comfort the tree to ease what lies ahead,when cold winds try to fell it after all the leaves are dead.

Standing tall it holds each branch upwards toward the skyto brave those winter storms, sent from clouds on high.Having deep faith in nature, knows it soon will send the springand those sunny days for the birth of leaves it brings.

Older now, my mind is filled with great awe in the faith I seeand feel ashamed I had less faith than just a simple tree.Our lives are made of seasons and some will make us grieve,but if we just have faith, we will never be without our leaves.

I am IN love

Three passions have governed my life: The longings for love, the search for knowledge, And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. In the union of love I have seen In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of [people]. I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, But always pity brought me back to earth; Cries of pain reverberated in my heart Of children in famine, of victims tortured And of old people left helpless. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

adapted

"aries"

Be careful not to overwhelm anyone with your emotions right now. Play it cool.

There's stuff going on under the surface that might not be easy to understand -- but that doesn't mean it's possible to ignore. Make sure you're paying close attention to all the subtle signals coming your way.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year To You
Happy New Year to you!May every great new dayBring you sweet surprises--A happiness buffet.
Happy New Year to you,And when the new year’s done,May the next year be even better,Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

New years are a chance for a beginning Even when there hasn't been an end. Wheels turn in an interminable bend,Yet, marked in one spot, seem to wobble spinning.Each year we hope to do a little betterAlthough we know that really nothing's changed.Reason thinks that everything's arranged,So we must dream if we would fate unfetter.