MANDAUE City will hold a festival that will complement the Sinulog in Cebu City.
Called the Panagtagbo festival, it will be launched on Thursday next week, a day before the Traslacion, the traditional transfer of images of the Sto. Nino and the Virgin Mary from the Basilica del Sto. Niño to Mandaue City for an overnight stay at the National Shrine of St. Joseph.
There will be street dancing and a Heritage Exhibit of 33 icons, paintings and a relic of St. Joseph at Parkmall aside from a Balikbayan Night and tour, a Mandaue Idol contest and photo contest.
The Sto. Niño image will be kept in the Shrine overnight on Friday, Jan. 13.
The next day, the icon will sail on a “galleon” down the Mactan Channel for the fluvial procession from the Ouano wharf to Pier 1.
The Panagtagbo festival will start on Jan. 12 and end on Jan. 22.
“Panagtagbo” is Cebuano for “meeting”, and the festival is a preparation for the meeting of the three members of the Holy Family. About 75 high school students will perform the original Panagtagbo dance steps with a jingle composed by Elvis Somosot and sung by the Mandaue Idols.
Clarito Fruelda, president of Taga Mandaue Inc., said this was an experession of faith in the city’s patron saint, St. Joseph.
Louela Cabanero, head of the Mandaue City Tourism Commission, said the event would emphasize the city’s St. Joseph Shrine.
“It would not compete with the Sinulog festival, which has been established years ago and is known throughout the world,” she said.
The annual Bibingkahan sa Mandaue, which promotes the city’s delicacy, rice cakes or bibingka”, will also start on Jan. 9.
The Panagtagbo is also part of the Bibingkahan sa Mandaue event which started last Jan. 9./Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos with Correspondent Fe Marie D. Dumaboc