Sorsogon Provincial Government

ABOUT KASANGGAYAHAN FESTIVAL

MR. JEROME D. DIO | MUSEO SORSOGON

455th Commemoration of the First Mass Commemorating the Beginning of Christianity in Luzon

        The Bicol region was the first in Luzon to received a new faith and a new code of morals from the
Spanish missionaries. It was in the southernmost of the six provinces of the region, and the tip of Luzon, and is believed to be the first Christians were baptized. It was, in fact, in the barrio of Hibal-ong at Magallanes that the first mass on the island of Luzon was said by Fray Alonso Jimenez in 1569.

        From 1521 to 1542, from Magellan to Villalobos, Spanish expeditions came and went en route to Moluccas. Priests, as chaplains, were with each expedition, accompanying the soldiers. The role of the priests as to establish the Church of Christ, and the soldiers to establish the Spanish Government. But in 1565, one came purposely to stay. It was headed by Legazpi and Urdaneta, who came to implant the Castillian flag alongside the Cross of Christ. The Cross and the Sword reached the Bikol land in 1569 in the persons of Capt. Luis Enriquez de Guzman and Fray Alonso Jimenez.

        Fray Jiminez is an Augustinian friar; he was the chaplain of two successive exploratory parties dispatched by Legazpi from Panay. The first exploration in 1569 landed in Hibal-ong, Magallanes  

130th Foundation Anniversary as an Independent Province from Albay

        Sorsogon is the southernmost of the six provinces of the Bicol Region, occupying the tip of Luzon.
It is a landlocked body of water constituting one of the finest harbors in the Philippine Archipelago.

The Province of Sorsogon became independent from Albay on October 1894 having Jose dela Guardia as its first Governor. The Decreto Real declaring Sorsogon an independent province from Albay consisted of fourteen municipalities namely; Sorsogon, as the Capital of the province, Bacon, Barcelona, Bulan, Casiguran, Castilla, Donsol, Irosin, Gubat, Magallanes, Matnog and Pilar. Four days later, Sta. Magdalena was added, making the total number of municipalities of the new province fifteen; and, finally, in 1904, the municipality of Prieto-Diaz was added making the number of municipalities sixteen.

130th Foundation Anniversary as an Independent Province from Albay

        According to historical records, Sorsogon was separated from the Province of Albay to become an
independent province on October 29, 1894. This is why, in 1993, in preparation for the Centennial Foundation Anniversary of the Province of Sorsogon, the Philippine Congress passed a law of local application declaring October 17 of each year as a special public holiday for the entire province. Thus, after two decades of non-celebration of the province’s foundation anniversary, the Kasanggayahan Festival was revived and ever since then, became an annual province-wide activity.

The very first Kasanggayahan Festival was held in October 1974, during the administration of Governor Juan G. Frivaldo, which was Sorsogon’s 80th Foundation Anniversary as a province, separate from the province of Albay, to which it used to belong. It was also during this same year, that the Kasanggayahan Amphitheater was constructed, in anticipation of the Festival, at the common ball ground between the
campuses of the Sorsogon National High School and what is now the Sorsogon State University.

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