CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- This year's 445th Aldo Ning Kapampangan (Pampanga Day) opened Monday with a celebration of the best festival dances from the province’s 22 municipalities and cities as each group presented street dances in front the Provincial Capitol building.
Groups from various towns presented their festival dances wearing their best costumes before government officials. Festival dances like the Sabuaga Festival of Santo Tomas, Duman Festival of Santa Rita, Binulu of Porac, Kamaru of Magalang and Mandukit of Guagua were among the dances presented during the event.
Provincial Tourism officer Arwin Lingat said that the event aimed to promote the various festivals in the different localities of Pampanga.
The provincial government gave out prizes for the participants. The Best Headdress award went to San Simon town while Best Costume went to the Municipality of Guagua. The third place award went to the City of San Fernando for its Parul Festival, second place went to San Simon for its Sun, Sea, Moon Festival while the first place went to Guagua town for its Dukit Festival. Floridablanca was hailed as this year’s festival dance champion for its San Jose Festival.
The Aldo Ning Kapampangan commemorates the founding of Pampanga as a province.
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 re-organized as a province by the Spaniards on December 11, 1571.
For governmental control and taxation purposes, the Spanish authorities subdivided Pampanga into towns (pueblos), which were further subdivided into districts (barrios) and in some cases into royal and private estates (encomiendas).
On December 10 will be the coronation night of Mutya Ning Kapampangan. On December 11, from 5:00 p.m. onwards, the awardees of the Most Outstanding Kapampangan awards will be formally presented in a formal program at the Kingsborough Convention Center.
Lingat said this is first time the Provincial Government has brought together all festival traditions in the province under one celebration.
Various towns trooped to the Pampanga Provincial Capitol staging their signature festival dances, which include Candaba (Ibon-Ebun Festival), Mabalacat (Caragan Festival), Lubao (Sampaguita Festival), Mexico (San Nicolas Festival), Porac (Binulo Festival), Angeles City (Bagius Festival), Bacolor (Makatapak Festival), Arayat (Manga Festival), and Sasmuan (Kuraldal).
Of the said celebrations, Kuraldal is considered as the oldest with the rest as recent inventions for tourism attractions.