Pampanga marks 436th founding anniversary (Sun.Star, Tuesday, December 04, 2007)

Pampanga marks 436th founding anniversary

By Ian Ocampo Flora

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The country's oldest province is celebrating its 436th foundation in a weeklong celebration of culture and tradition.

The Aldo Ning Kapampangan, which runs in line with another cultural festival (Sinukwan Festival) is a project of the Pampanga Provincial Government and will run from December 1 to 11 with a post celebration event on December 22.

The founding anniversary celebration, which opened on Monday, is highlighted by events like the Pampanga Agro Industrial Fair, Photo Exhibit, Sining Kapampangan, Fireworks Display Jobs Fair, Dance Drama on Kapampangan History, Kapampangan Quiz Show, and Off-Road Challenge, among others.

Another feature of the celebration is the cooking of the "Largest Bringhi" that is expected to set a new record for the province. The event dubbed "Pamisaup-saup Susi King Panyulung," according to Tourism Officer Ian Paulo Mejia, is a vehicle to conserve and preserve Kapampangan culture.

"This is the reason why we are staging the Largest Bringhi. It is high time that Kapampangans should set differences aside and unite to make the province more progressive and restore the former glory of the province," Mejia said.

The event also aimed at promoting the best of the province's arts and crafts through its Industrial Fair sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The trade fair will run for a week within the Capitol grounds and will feature long time tow crafts from glass etched mirrors, pastries and cooking wares from the various towns of the province.

Officials here believed that the event would funnel attention into the cultural and tourism potentials of the province. Pampanga was first organized as a province in 1571, initially to meet the needs of pacifying, taxing, converting, and adjusting to Spanish ways the Pampangan natives.

Pampangans who brought their own advanced civilization, unique customs, traditions and a language of their own called Kapampangan were described by an Augustinian priest in 1720 as "very different because they are truthful, love their honor, very brave, inclined to work hard, more civil and have better customs, and have a nobleness of mind".

Pampanga, which is about 850 square miles in area and presently inhabited by more than 1.5 million people, had its present borders drawn in 1873. During the Spanish regime it was one of the richest Philippine provinces. Manila and its surrounding region were then primarily dependent on Pampanga's agricultural, fishery, and forestry products as well as on the supply of skilled workers.

The twin celebrations of the Sinukwan Festival and the Aldo Ning Kapampangan have lined up programs to be staged at the Capitol ground and at the Robinsons Starmills here.