Philippine Independence Day
Next: June 12, 2027
A sun, three stars, one flag.
The story
Where it comes from
On 12 June 1898, in Kawit, Cavite, General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines from Spain. The new national flag was formally waved from a window of his family home, while the band of San Francisco de Malabon played, for the first time in public, a march by the Cavite music teacher Julián Felipe that became the national anthem. For many years the country marked independence on 4 July instead. In 1962 President Diosdado Macapagal declared 12 June Independence Day, and a 1964 law, Republic Act 4166, made the change permanent.
How it's celebrated
From 28 May to 12 June, the National Flag Days, homes, schools, offices and shops are asked to display the flag. On the day itself, a regular holiday known as Araw ng Kalayaan, the National Historical Commission leads flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremonies at Rizal Park in Manila, the Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit and other historic sites, Philippine embassies raise the flag abroad, and towns hold parades.
Did you know
- The first flag was sewn by hand in Hong Kong, at 535 Morrison Hill Road, by Marcela Agoncillo with her daughter Lorenza and Delfina Herbosa de Natividad, a niece of José Rizal.
- The flag's three stars stand for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, and the eight rays of its sun for the first eight provinces placed under a state of war by the Spanish governor-general.
- By law the flag flies with its blue stripe on top in peacetime and is turned red side up in time of war.
The greeting
Maligayang Araw ng Kalayaan
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