Thousands witness Minglanilla’s ‘Sugat’

Children suspended from wires act as angels in the annual Kabanhawan festival in Minglanilla town. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

While watching yesterday’s Sugat Kabanhawan at the Minglanilla Central School, 62-year-old Emma Reces remembered how grateful she was to her daughter for inviting her to live in her home in Minglanilla town, southern Cebu last year.

“Nalipay ko nga naa nako diri kay nakakita ko kon unsa diay ka nindot ang Kabanhawan (I’m happy that I now live here for I am able to witness how nice the Kabanhawan is),” Reces said.

A native of Pikit town,  North Cotabato, Reces said there was no activity similar to the Sugat Kabanhawan (Resurrection Meeting) where she used to live due in part to the sporadic clashes between the military and Moro rebels there.

Now staying with her daughter, Reces said she appreciates the event’s message of the Lord’s love for humanity through his sacrificial death and eventual resurrection.

“Bisan unsa gadako atong sala, dagko iyang sakripisyo aron maluwas ta (No matter how severe the sins we committed, the Lord sacrificed His life to save us),” Reces said.

Senior Insp. Richard Gadingan, chief of the Minglanilla Police Station estimated the crowd who attended the Sugat at 40,000 to 50,000.

The Catholic faithful in Minglanilla town watch children dressed as angels and suspended from wires in a reenactment of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

Sugat capital
Aside from two drunken men who tried to enter the school, he said there was no untoward incident.

Minglanilla town is known as the “Sugat Capital” of southern Cebu, a distinction defined by its Sugat Kabanhawan event, a reenactment of the meeting between the risen Jesus Christ and his mother Mary.

During the reenactment of the meeting held at the Minglanilla Elementary School in barangay Ward I, children dressed as angels were seen escaping from the shadow of a large bird which represented the devil in order to welcome the risen Lord.

“This year among gibali kay ang naandan nato- passion and then Mass and then ang simbahan. We will have the sugat and the enactment and the Easter Mass (We changed the usual order of activities–from the Passion of Christ, then Mass and the church. We will have the Sugat and the enactment and the Easter Mass),” said Victor Cuenco, director of the Minglanilla Sugat Kabanhawan play.

He said they added the procession going to the parish church after the 30-minute Sugat upon the church’s request.

Nearly a thousand dancers composed of students and performers took part in the reenactment.

“Nakahilak gyod ko sa kanindot (I was teary-eyed because of the spectacular Sugat),” said 49-year-old Angel, a native of Toledo City.