Gabii sa Kabilin: A Night of Celebrating Cebuano History and Heritage

Hello, Hive friends💫! @lizhavesomefun is back with another fun museum adventure to unpack! Now, at this point, you might be wondering, does this person have any content besides museum blogs? Well, can you blame me? I’m just a girl with a social studies major and a bit of curiosity about museums and history hahaha.

Anyway, have you ever heard of Gabii sa Kabilin✨? It’s a Cebuano phrase that has a direct translation of “Night of Heritage.”

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What is Gabii sa Kabilin?

It is a yearly event in Cebu, Philippines that usually happens in May, the event invites and attracts locals and visitors alike to experience the rich history and culture of Cebuano Heritage. It was said that the event was inspired by the “Long Night of Museums” in Germany, and indeed the night is long and lively during the event since the local museums and historical sites open their doors for an extraordinary and immersive nighttime exploration from 6:00 in the evening until 12:00 in the midnight. However, this is not just about history--- it’s all about Cebu’s vibrant and rich traditions, arts, and stories.

As someone who adores museums and storytelling, seeing the official site popping up in my newsfeed on the last week of April 2023 with its announcement that the Gabii sa Kabilin will resume (well, they stopped for a couple of years due to the pandemic), I didn’t let the opportunity pass by and immediately told my friends who also intended to join the event. We inquired about how to join the event through their Facebook page and told us we could buy a ticket at the Kabilin Center (found in Eduardo Aboitiz St, Cebu City) and so we did! There were two options for the ticket and its package—1) A regular ticket that lets you tour the heritage sites and museums on foot for 180 pesos (3 USD), and 2) A premium ticket that lets you have an unlimited bus ride and tartanilla (it is like another version of Kalesa) for 300 pesos (5 USD). We bought the latter since we don’t really know the streets of Cebu and a week later, we received our tickets.

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D-Day, Gabii sa Kabilin!

May 12th came, and I am excited to boot! I attended my morning classes and when lunch came, me and my classmates ( @milesinverse included) immediately went to Danao City Terminal to catch a bus ride bound for SM City Cebu. Once we arrived, we ate our lunch at a fast-food chain there and then we split up as we headed to each of our booked hotels. Lucky for us, we booked Palm-Grass Hotel which is also a participating site of the event!

At around 4:00 in the afternoon, we decided to attend the opening ceremony of the event which also coincides with the opening of Sugbo Mercado, held in Freedom Park where you can see the Colon Obelisk.

Armed with our tickets and passion, we then set ourselves to explore what the event has to offer.

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University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR)

Since our meetup place is the Freedom Park, we decided to start with the nearest—USJR. The university offers quite a number of artifacts, from their own history up to the history of the towns and municipalities and the items that they acquired. But what I liked the most in our visit there is their Chapel. I have to say that their chapel can rival a parish on its own—it’s pretty big and pretty

As we leave the university feeling satisfied with what we experienced so far, that’s when the plot twist happens—a funny mishap caused by our malfunctioned sense of direction hahahaha-- even though the event organizers provided us a map. We decided to get help from Google Maps and since the streets of Colon are like a labyrinth maze for first-time visitors, it’s no wonder that we walked for at least a few hundred meters only to find out that we were back at the other end of the USJR campus. Fortunately, we saw lots of people lining up for the free bus ride, and we hoped along as well.

Museo Sugbo

Our second stop was Museo Sugbo, and I’d say it was the highlight of the night. Cultural performances, food stalls, interactive and informative tours in each gallery and exhibit—it was the epitome of “Night of Heritage”. There were lots of artifacts here and there, and the museum is just as old as it looks, making it even more immersive!

We had lots of fun here to the point that we forgot that we still have many museums and landmarks yet to explore with so little time left. That’s why when we finally gathered at the entrance, we grabbed the opportunity to ride a bus to Mactan, which might be exciting but not really the wisest decision we’ve made.

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Mactan Shrine

The travel time was about 2 hours, and we knew that we shouldn’t have to ride the bus bound for Lapu-Lapu since we could have used it to visit another nearby museum. However, once we arrived, all our regrets disappeared as we were greeted by a fantastic arnis performance performed by small athletes. It was a tribute to the first hero of the country—Lapu-Lapu who fended off Magellan during his quest here in Cebu. After watching and taking snaps, we decided to eat barbeque at the venue, and as we almost finished our food, we suddenly saw our bus started moving. Shocked and horrified, we at once hurried and ran after it, leaving our food behind. It was 11:55 after all! The event will end in just five minutes, and it was supposed to be the last bust ride returning to Plaza Independencia. Luckily, there was another bus on standby, and was also about to start moving but we caught up with it. We really thought we were really done for, and we had to spend the rest of the night on the place.

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Palm Grass The Cebu Heritage Hotel

After a good night's sleep and our morning rituals, we proceed to check out at the hotel. Since my cousin is still busy with the process, @milesinverse and I decided to check out the exhibit upstairs since the hotel was one of the participants (as I mentioned earlier). We asked the hotel crew if we could, and they happily obliged. We took snaps of our last exhibit for the event.

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A Night to Remember

Looking back at our Gabii sa Kabilin adventure, it was clear that Cebu really has much to offer aside from its mountains and beaches—its tradition, culture, and history itself are already a treasure. Though our night had a few mishaps—like getting lost or nearly missing the last bus—we wouldn’t have had it any other way. The thrill, the excitement, and the joy of discovering with friends something new at every corner made it truly a core memory.

And now, I am eyeing for the Gabii sa Kabilin 2025!! After all, I only got to visit 3 out of 20-plus museums. And my bingo card hasn’t been filled yet, so if you also plan to experience this kind of night, you might not want to miss out on this one!

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Until next time, fellow adventurers, museum enthusiasts, and time travelers! I can’t wait to share more stories from my other historical visits (yet again hahaha). And if you’ve been to a similar event, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!

Keep discovering and creating memories!✨ Ciao!
[//]:# (!pinmapple 10.29796 lat 123.90361 long d3scr)