A parade and dance competition will take place on the streets of Taipei Sunday to mark the feast of Santo Niño, an annual celebration of the Philippines’ Catholic history, according to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO).

Usually held during the third Sunday of January, the feast day of Santo Niño is celebrated in commemoration of when the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan brought a statue of the baby Jesus as a baptismal gift to Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon of Cebu in 1521.

For this year’s feast, MECO and the Taipei City government have co-organized the Santo Niño Beats for Peace Festival: In My Circular World event, which will showcase Filipino religious traditions and culture through a vibrant parade and dance competition on the streets of Taipei, MECO said in a statement Wednesday.

This is one of the most important events in the religious history of the Philippines as it paved the way for the spread of Christianity in the country, according to the MECO.

A total of 14 groups are expected to participate in the event that will kick off with a parade starting at 1:30 p.m. from St. Christopher’s Church at Zhongshan N. Rd.

The parade will then head toward Linsen N. Rd, Nong’an St., and back to Zhongshan N. Rd., before assembling at 4 p.m. at the Taipei Expo Park for an awards ceremony, the MECO said.

“This festival is organized in an effort to spread cheer for Filipinos in Taiwan and the Taiwanese during these extraordinary times,” the MECO said in the statement.

The upcoming event is considered to be the biggest Filipino culture-related parade and street dance event since the Taipei Masskara Festival in September 2020, where some 1,200 people took part.

The Taipei Masskara Festival was a replica of the Masskara, also known as the “Festival of Smiles,” one of the most celebrated and colorful events in the Philippines that originated in the City of Bacolod in the 1980s.

There are 141,808 Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan, making them the third¬ largest group of migrant workers in Taiwan after Indonesians and Vietnamese, according to Ministry of Labor statistics valid as of the end of 2021.

For more information on Sunday’s event, visit the Facebook page of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel