SAROK SA CONSOLACION

    While people around the globe celebrates Valentine's Day on the 14th of February, the townspeople of Consolacion on the other hand celebrates their very own festivity, the SAROK FESTIVAL.

    Sarok Festival is a mardigra of colors and street dancing along the main road of Consolacion. However, the Sarok Festival evolved into a free interpretation dance, with the musical concept inspired from the Miligoy de Cebu, a published Filipino folk dance originating from the same place. Celebrated every 14th of February, in commemoration of Consolacion's founding anniversary, the main attraction of this festival is the colorful Sarok and its wide uses.

But what is "Sarok" by the way?

    To protect farmers and the folks from the sun and the rain, the Sarok, a conical hat made from bamboo strips and dried banana leaves, becomes the needed fad for the people of Consolacion especially that the town is an agricultural land.

    And over the pass of time, the natives have gone outside the box and made such great modification among those original sarok design.

    Sarok nowadays, are not just used as protective hat against the sun and rain but also as home or office decors and even as travel souvenirs for both locals and foreigners.

Truly, sarok has made its boundless benefit not just on the lives of the sarok-makers but also on the whole town of Consolacion because the festivity does not only bring people on and off the town, but as well as investments from local and foreign businesses which has been a great help for the town's growing economy.

Knowing CONSOLACION

CONSOLACION (colloquially "LACION") is one of the growing first income class municipality in the whole province of Cebu, Philippines. It is about 12.5 kilometers from Cebu City, forming part of the Cebu Metropolitan Area. Consolacion stretches some 15 kilometers from north to south and the width at its widest point approximately 5 kilometers. Consolacion is bounded on the north by the municipality of Liloan, Cebu, on the south by the city of Mandaue, on the east by the Mactan Channel and on the west by the city of Cebu and the municipality of Compostela. 

map of Consolacion, Cebu

The municipality of Consolacion has 21 barangays namely, Cabangahan, Cansaga, Casili, Danglag, Garing, Jugan, Lamac, Lanipga, Nangka, Panas, Panoypoy, Pitogo, Poblacion Occidental, Poblacion Oriental, Polog, Pulpogan, Sacsac, Tayud, Tilhaong, Tolotolo and Tugbongan.

This municipality is said to be a torn-up place back in 1800s. It was then own and governed by the Spanish government. Consolacion was only a barrio and was under the municipality of Mandaue (now Mandaue city). finally in 1920, Consolacion was again made an independent municipality after a petition for its  restoration into separate town, was granted by the governor. So grateful were the townspeople to the Spanish governor that they named their new town after its daughter - Consolacion. And they also chose San Narciso as their patron saint, the namesake of the governor's wife, Narcisa.

Today, Consolacion is a robust residential urban municipality with a vigorous growing economy, providing a job to it's people and a place to live for people employed in the neighboring cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu.