Thousands of residents and visitors joined the 6-kilometer Zumba street dancing on Saturday, February 3, 2024, as part of the celebration of the 429th Feast of Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, the patroness of Silang Cavite.
The Zumba street dancing started at 6 a.m. from the Silang Municipal Hall and ended at the Silang Central Elementary School, where a mass and a program were held. The participants wore colorful costumes and carried candles as they danced to upbeat music along the streets of the historic town.
The Zumba street dancing was one of the highlights of the three-day fiesta, which also featured a grand band parade, a float parade, a street dancing competition, a beauty pageant, a fireworks display, and a music festival.
The fiesta is held every year to honor Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, or Our Lady of Candles, a Marian devotion that originated in Tenerife, Spain. According to legend, a statue of the Virgin Mary holding a candle was found by two Guanche shepherds on the beach of Chimisay in the 14th or 15th century. The devotion spread to other parts of the world, especially in Latin America and the Philippines.
The Silang Cavite fiesta is one of the oldest and largest celebrations of Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in the country. It attracts thousands of devotees and tourists every year who come to venerate the image of the Virgin and join the festivities.
The image of Nuestra Señora de Candelaria is enshrined in the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City, where she is also the patroness of Western Visayas. She was crowned by Pope John Paul II in 1981, making her the first Marian statue crowned in personam without a papal legate by a pope and saint in Asia.
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