Most of us might remember Buwan ng Wika as a special time in school when we focused on anything that would get us to proclaim “Pinoy pride.” 

It’s a momentous occasion when students would don outfits from various historical periods of our country and learn about our historical figures. An easy go-to outfit was the Katipunero getup consisting of bright red pants, a long-sleeved white shirt, a farmer’s hat, a red scarf, and slippers. OPM would blast on the school speakers each day, playing either traditional folk music or the latest hits by local bands. A mini feast of Filipino specialties pieced together by the class would then cap off the day. Throughout the celebration, the use of Filipino to speak with others was encouraged as a means of shedding light on the beauty of the mother tongue. As this year’s Buwan ng Wika draws to a close, let us have a look back at how it started.

To pinpoint when exactly this yearly celebration began, we must first look into how we gained our national language. For the longest time, Spanish had been regarded as our official language due to Spain’s colonization of the Philippines for over 333 years. It would later be replaced with English after the US sent in its Thomasites, a group comprising over 600 teachers tasked with shaping up the Philippines’ public school system during our time as a US territory. 

English would prove to be the popular choice until 1935 when President Manuel L. Quezon called on Congress to pick a national language that would unite our country. His thoughts are best shown through his speech before the alumni of San Juan de Letran College in 1937, “I am President of the Philippines; I am the personal representative of the Philippine nation, the Philippine people. But, when I travel through the provinces and talk to my people, I need an interpreter. Did you ever hear of anything more humiliating, more horrible than that?” 

Tagalog, considered the front-runner as it was the most understood language in all the regions, was heavily utilized in Manila. Finally, by 1940 Commonwealth Act No. 570 declared Filipino as the national language. While it was the Tagalog language at its core, it included a few Spanish and English terms that were localized as seen fit. It would be deemed official by 1946. In the same year, President Sergio Osmeña, through Proclamation No. 35, came up with the Linggo ng Wika, the predecessor of the Buwan ng Wika. It was an annual celebration held from March 27 to April 2 as its end date, also the birthday of Filipino poet Francisco Balagtas. President Ramon Magsaysay would later change the dates to August 13 to 19, the latter being Quezon’s birthday, so that it could be celebrated within the school year. President Corazon Aquino reaffirmed these dates in 1988 through Proclamation 19.
 

Linggo ng Wika would become a mainstay celebration until 1997 when President Fidel V. Ramos saw it fit to extend the celebration of the national language to cover the entire month of August. It has since become the one month in 12 every year that makes it official for us to ignite our love for the country and its many offerings. As we mature further as a nation, it might become a yearlong celebration of everything that defines us as a people.