18/04/2023
April 17, 2023
19th BANTAYOG FESTIVAL
Daet, Camarines Norte
Bantayog Festival
Bantayog Festival is a historical festival and founding anniversary celebration held in the province of Camarines Norte, Philippines every April. It is a festival that gives tribute to the heroism of Jose Rizal and local patriots who took part in the Daet revolt in 1898. Moreover, it is held to commemorate the creation of Camarines Norte as an independent province. From a week-long schedule, it has become a month-long celebration and a gathering of cultural festivals of the province.
History of Bantayog Festival
Bantayog Festival comes from the word bantayog, which means monument. The name of the festival and its inspiration are derived from the First Rizal Monument, a historic landmark and marker that was erected in honor of Filipino hero Jose Rizal in the town of Daet, the capital of Camarines Norte. Rizal is the most famous of heroes in the Philippines. His prolific writings, ideals, and nationalist vision kindled the revolution that eventually toppled the Spanish hegemony that had lasted in the Philippines for over three hundred years.
First Rizal Monument
First Rizal Monument was the very first of its kind and the oldest in the country. Its construction was consistent with one of the decrees issued by the Philippine revolutionary government to honor the life and memory of Rizal and to observe the day of his death as a holiday. It was put up near the river park along Justo Lukban Street and Jose Rizal Street in Daet. Although Rizal never set foot in the province during his lifetime, Camarines Norte was the first to make an initiative memorializing his heroism through a monument.
Groundbreaking rites of the First Rizal Monument occurred on December 30, 1898, merely two years after his ex*****on and death. It was completed in February of 1899, a few months away from the start of hostilities of what would become the Filipino-American war. It predated by over fourteen years the Rizal Monument in Luneta in Ermita, Manila, the site of his burial, which was opened to the public for the first time in 1913.
Source: https://www.festivalscape.com/philippines/camarines-norte/bantayog-festival/