THE 449th Aldo ning Kapampangan celebration was toned down in Pampanga this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the event going online and doing away with the usual traditional events and activities.

Governor Dennis Pineda addressed the people in a message streamed through online platforms like Youtube and Facebook and the province’s Provincial Information Office page. The virtual celebration still featured the usual cultural presentations but also emphasized the current pandemic and the people who have been working hard on the frontlines.

San Fernando Archbishop Florentino Lavarias had ordered the “joyous” ringing of bells in chapels and churches in the province to mark the said occasion.

The late president Ferdinand Marcos, through Proclamation 2226, declared December 11, 1982, and every year thereafter, as "Aldo Ning Kapampangan," a special non-working holiday in the province. The commemoration was first declared an official non-working holiday during the incumbency of Governor Estelito Mendoza, who also commissioned the composition of an official Pampanga hymn that is sung during official functions of the provincial government up to the present.

Pampanga, according to history, was the first province and the richest spoil created by the Spaniards in 1571.

It was named after the Indung Kapampangan River, the largest river in the former empire. Ancient Pampanga’s territorial area used to include portions of the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac and Zambales in the big Island of Luzon of the Philippine Archipelago.

Pampanga, one of the richest provinces in the Philippines, was reorganized as a province by the Spaniards on December 11, 1571.