Welcome to the Christmas Capital of the Philippines!

San Fernando reminds most of us of a grim chapter in Philippine History: the Bataán Death March. It was at the old train station there were the infamous march, which killed thousands of Filipino and Northern American P.O.W.s, finally ended. For those uninterested in history, San Fernando is just another obscure Central Luzón city that one passes by during trips to more famous northern spots such as Baguio and Vigan.

But there is more to San Fernando than just history and obscurity. It is a bustling city of living history. And architectural heritage. And even Christmas!

Let it be known that this Pampango city of today is, of course, very far from being obscure. And to say that it is bustling does not even suffice to describe its lively streets crowded with healthy business establishments. And unlike many other provincial cities that we have visited in the country, San Fernando is surprisingly clean and disciplined: no littered streets, no jaywalkers  (or was our timing just right?). It also has an odd mix of modernity and history. Down at the población (people there call it bayan) which is Barrio Santo Rosario, you will see old and new buildings. There is even an SM mall on the very same area where one could find handsome heritage houses along streets with both modern vehicles and seemingly out-of-time calesas. And we haven't even mentioned the magnificence of the city's historic cathedral yet. Truly, San Fernando is a wondrous mix of both past and present.

We arrived past noon with a very excellent weather. Aside from jeepneys, high-side pick-ups (the red vehicle beside the monument) are the main modes of transportation. The monument you see in this photo is called the Monumento Fernandino which serves as a roundabout (commonly known in Spanish as rotonda) between Calle B. Mendoza and the Manila North Road (now known as MacArthur Highway, where all those jeeps are all headed).

San Fernando's eponymous heritage is purely Hispanic for the whole place was named after Spanish King Fernando VI (1713-1759) and was placed under the titular of his sanctified namesake, Fernando III de Castilla (1199-1252), the monarch-turned-saint (he was canonized in 1671). It was the Augustinian friars who established the town in 1754. No wonder there is a Barrio San Agustín there and also a gated community called St. Augustine Village. Also, the town church was dedicated to an Augustinian patroness: Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.

Fray Sebastián Moreno was the first parish priest. He built the church which was completed in 1761. Since then, it underwent several revisions/reconstructions. The church was badly damaged during a fire in 1939. Its current features were designed only after World War II by architect Fernando Ocampo. Three years later, on 11 December 1948, the parish church was elevated into a Cathedral when it was established as the seat of the Diocese of San Fernando. And finally, on 17 March 1975, it became the Archdiocese of San Fernando.

We visited the city last December 14 for the annual Giant Lantern Festival for which San Fernando is famously known for these days. We got there past noon. But since the competition for the giant lanterns was to start in the evening, we first toured the old población, the birthplace of the modern City of San Fernando.

Just arrived at the lively población. The huge dome of the Catedral Metropolitana de San Fernando can already be seen from Calle B. Mendoza.

View of the back of the Cathedral from Calle V. Tiomico.

My family crossing Calle V. Tiomico. To their left is SM City San Fernando which opened last year.

Pedicabs (cycle rickshaws) in San Fernando look different.

My family at the entrance to the cathedral.

Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is San Fernando City, Pampanga's secondary patron.

Momay, Jefe, and Juanito freely run around the wide patio dividing the church and the city hall along Calle Santo Niño Viejo (now Consunji). The city hall's architecture is impressively Filipino in design, the way it really should be.

Casa Santos, now known as Pampanga Lodge & Restaurant. During the early years, it was simply known as Pampanga Hotel. This house also served as a former site of the  Pampanga National High School.

Mc Donald's and Jollibee in peaceful co-existence along Calle V. Tiomico. But neither did we eat in these two nor at the nearby Pampanga Lodge & Restaurant. Instead...

...we ate here at Balé Capampañgan which serves authentic native dishes! "Balé" is a Capampañgan word which means "house".

Getting cozy.

We tried two Capampañgan dishes: "sinigáng sa paro" (three photos on top) and "sisig babi".

After pigging out at Bale Capampañgan, we returned to San Fernando proper, passing by this monument again. Here's a closer shot of the Monumento Fernandino, a masterpiece of Abdulmari "Toym" Imao, Jr., son of renowned sculptor Adulmari Asia Imao. It was inaugurated in 2004.

At the City of San Fernando Public Market, we rented a calesa for only ₱50.00 for a classic Filipino joyride around San Fernando's famed heritage district!

From the public market, our calesa traversed the somewhat quaint street of V. Tiomico and crossed Calle Limjoco. We then turned left towards Calle Serafín, then left again to Calle Consunji leading us back to where we began. We then turned left again to Calle Hizon which is sandwiched by the Pampanga Lodge & Restaurant and the Cathedral, then left again to Calle V. Tiomico. We covered three blocks filled with ancestral houses. Not bad for ₱50.00. That's why Yeyette added another ₱50.00 to the cochero when we alighted at the capitolio later on because he was very courteous and accomodating.

We saw many ancestral houses (most especially along Calle Consunji). But here we feature only four houses (from top left, clockwise):

1) Casa Nicolasa The ancestral house of Doña Nicolasa Dayrit de Panlilio, partially hidden by bougainvillas. Doña Nicolasa assisted in ministering the sick and wounded during the Philippine War of Independence (1899–1902).

2) Casa Lazatín The ancestral house of Don Serafín Lazatín, a local sugar baron, and his wife, Doña Encarnación Siñgian. It was built in 1925.

3) Casa Consunji Home of Don Antonio Consunji, the "presidente municipal" (equivalent to today's mayor) of San Fernando during the Tagálog-Pampango rebellion against Spain.

4) Casa Santos-Hizon This Victorian-style wonder was owned by Don Teodoro Santos. He later sold it to Doña María Salomé Hizon. It is currently owned by the heirs of Doña María's brother Ramón.

Our calesa is passing by the Cathedral again.

Our final calesa stop: the provincial capitol grounds in Barrio Santo Niño!

To those who are not yet aware, San Fernando has been the capital of Pampanga province since 22 July 1904. Before that, the capital was still the neighboring town of Bacolor. The move to transfer Pampanga's capital from Bacolor to San Fernando can be considered as "52 years in the making" because since 1852, there was already an attempt to make San Fernando as the capital of the province. But it was only during the governorship of Macario Arnedo when the transfer occurred. That is why the half-circle park in front of the capitol building bears his name.

And on this park is where we truly enjoyed our stay! The spacious greenery of Arnedo Park is the place to be for our kids who could rarely even go out of our apartment unit to play outdoors. We found many people at the park picnicking, flying kites, or simply passing the time away. We enjoyed ourselves so much that even Yeyette did a few cartwheels, something she never did since the sixth grade, LOL! And our kids were free to run about here and there.

When nighttime fell, the whole park became even more romantic as the capitol building, lampposts, and trees were all lit up with colorful Christmas lights!

We stayed there for a few minutes before proceeding to our final destination: the Giant Lantern Festival at Robinsons Starmills! We took a tricycle and paid ₱80.00 for all six of us. It was supposed to be only a 10-minute ride, but traffic was heavy because many people were already on their way to the mall for the event. It took us around 20 minutes just to get there!

As already mentioned in our previous blogpost, these lanterns are not your next door neighbor's ordinary parol. Their designs are not merely considered as top-of-the-line Christmas decors. They're intrinsically designed all right, but each and every one of them are huge. So huge you could even put a Macati mayor's ego inside it!

This year, only 10 barrios out of the city's 35 were able to participate in what could probably be the Philippines' most electrifying event — and we mean it literally!

Unfortunately, we were not able to finish the event. We weren't even able to see all the 10 participants light up at the same time because of some unfortunate incident which irritated Yeyette. More on this on our next blogpost.

♩ ♫ There was something in the air that night, the stars were San Fernando’s ♬ ♪

It was also a delight to see our children's confused faces —especially Momay, the most inquisitive of the four—whenever they hear people speaking in Capampañgan. It was the first time for them to be exposed in a land that is non-Tagalog. Even inside super-crowded Robinsons Starmills, we hardly heard our language being spoken. But it was strangely wonderful to the ears to hear fellow Filipinos, brother Filipinos, speaking another tongue that we don't understand!  There was even a funny scene when Yeyette was asking for directions from a jeepney driver. She was talking to the driver in Tagalog, but the driver was replying to her in Capampañgan; the latter thought that we were no different from their nación, LOL!

But of course, we aren't anymore. San Fernandinos may be Capampañgan/Pampangueño-speaking and my family aren't, but not once did we feel alienated. Because deep inside, we all knew that there is a kind of kinship, an unbreakable bond, that has already been forged ever so strongly, a bond that took shape for more than three hundred years. And that profound kinship among Tagalogs and Pampangueños, and all the other Christianized tribes for that matter, is what I would like to call the Filipino Identity.

The cathedral, the well-preserved bahay na bató ancestral homes, the calesas, the cuisine, and the Pampangueños themselves — they make La Familia Viajera so proud of being a Filipino family!

¡Feliz Navidad a todos los San Fernandinos!

The city of San Fernando could very well be "Pampanga's Best"! :-)

CLICK HERE for the rest of our San Fernando photos!

❤L❤A❤F❤A❤M❤I❤L❤I❤A❤V❤I❤A❤J❤E❤R❤A❤

TRIVIA! As a last resort to at least slow down the onslaught of an invading U.S. army, General Antonio Luna was compelled to burn the whole town. As a result, many original structures, including the cathedral itself —back then just an ordinary town church—, and the municipal hall (city hall today), were burned down. This fateful event happened on 4 May 1899.