The famous Sinulog festival in Cebu City is held every year on the third Sunday of January. The festival is characterized by a very long parade with many groups of persons dressed in colourful costumes, finding their way through the streets while dancing the Sinulog. To distinguish the festival from the popular Ati-Atihan Festival on Panay island,
this festival is characterized by a different dance. This Sinulog dance, is now the traditional and ritual dance in honor of Santo Niño. The dance is accompanied by the sound of the drums: all the time moving two steps forward followed by one step backward. Though the dance is already very old, the parade is rather young! 1980 was the first year that the parade was organized.