The rain that fell hours before the procession did not deter devotees from joining the Walk with Mary in Cebu City dawn on January 19, 2024, two days to the actual Fiesta Señor.

The city police estimated the crowd at the procession between 200,000 to 250,000, including those already waiting for the Traslacion that followed the Walk with Mary.

Like the Walk with Jesus at the beginning of the Fiesta Señor festivities, the Walk with Mary started at the Fuente Osmeña circle and moved down Osmeña Boulevard to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in downtown Cebu City.

The procession brought the image of the Virgin Mary to the Basilica from the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe de Cebu in Barangay Guadalupe.

The Traslacion that followed brought the images of the Santo Niño and Virgin Mary to the National Shrine of Saint Joseph in neighboring Mandaue City where they were reunited with the image of Saint Joseph.

The images will stay at the shrine for the rest of the day before they are brought to Lapu-Lapu City in Mactan Island in the second half of the Traslacion dawn on January 20, 2024.

From Mactan Island, the images will be ferried back to mainland Cebu through a fluvial procession for the grand foot procession in Cebu City afternoon of that day.

PIT SENYOR

In Mandaue City, devotees lined up at the roadside and chanted "Pit Senyor" as the image of the Santo Niño moved through the streets of Mandaue City during the Traslacion.

"Pit" is a shortened form of the Cebuano term "sangpit" or "sampit" that means to call on, petition, or supplicate.

Authorities estimated the crowd in Mandaue City at 15,000.

Both the Walk with Mary and Traslacion were carried out peacefully, police said.

(With reports from Lou-Anne Mae Rondina and Fe Marie Dumaboc, GMA Regional TV Balitang Bisdak)