By Sylvia L. Mayuga
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When Howie, the investigative journalist married Ipat, the environmental lawyer, their wedding memento was worthy of two visionaries – a tiny Sto. Niño, right hand raised in blessing, lying on shiny coils of sinamay fiber tucked into a festive native basket.
This Niño was not only portable. Its basket-nest gave it the look of an egg –-a symbol of new life so devoutly to be wished it could land only at the foot of the household Sacred Heart, its grown-up version.
Then one day a baby girl abandoned by her mother landed in this household – and quickly discovered the Niño’s playtime possibilities. No one ever stopped her from picking up “the baby” for an afternoon tea party with Winnie the Pooh, Big Bird and Elmo, or giving Him echo seminars on the alphabet. Can you think of a better prelude to adult discovery of love divine than a dear and intimate playmate?
She’s growing up Pinoy. The Niño is a very old spiritual lodestone among us. Spanish chroniclers say it all began when the queen of Cebu took a shine to the first Sto. Niño ever to land in our islands – an enamored first encounter with God-as-infant that led to her christening as Queen Juana, the mass baptism of her husband Humabon’s fiefdom, and the beginning of four centuries of Filipino Christianity.







This little statue has been my favorite since I found it three years ago. It came to me in a jumbled box lot from an estate sale. Look at it closely and it is a reassembled puzzle glued together after a bad break. The neck and the base and back have been repaired. The statue was quite dark with dirt when I found it, but has been cleaned just this side of falling apart. It is Portuguese and the eyes are made of glass, giving it a kind and sympathetic countenance. It sits on top of my desk in my writing space in the basement.



“The Santo Nno of Cebu has always been compared with the Infant Jesus of Prague, but there are differences between the two symbols. The Santo Nino of Cebu is has a crown, an orb, and a scepter - all symbols of authority, It is also has metal boots,which makes it look like a soldier. While the Infant of Prague: Athough it has royal vestures it does not have any military trapppings: no boots To say that the Santo Nino has become a part of Filipino iconography is an understatement. From the dancing festivals of the Ati-Ati-han, Sinulog, Mascara, and Dinagyang - where the dancers covered in soot parade around the street carrying the image of the Santo Nino accompanied by loud drum beats and shouts of hala bira and Viva Senor Santo Nino - to the near ubiquitous presence of a Santo Nino in the home; one can feel, hear, and see the presence of Senor Santo Nino. It also has an impressive array of clothes: The Santo Nino may come dressed in the traditional imperial-military regalia or in the dress of a farmer or a cop or even dressed in green clothes -so much green that it becomes painful to the eyes Yes, the Santo Nino given by Ferdinand Magallen has become part of Filipino culture. For more than three hundred years the Filipinos have been carrying and dancing with Senor Santo Nino. There more places, buildings, churches, and people named after the Santo Nino than Magellan 

