Keep Rizal Day on Dec.30

House bill seeks to move holiday to June 19

By Dr. Pablo S. Trillana III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12/30/2008




(The author is former chair of the National Historical Institute and Knight Grand Officer of the Order of the Knights of Rizal.)

MANILA, Philippines—House Bill No. 1289 seeks to move the observance of Rizal Day, a nonworking public holiday, from Dec. 30, the national hero’s death anniversary, to June 19, his birth date. The bill will soon come to the Senate for consideration after the Lower House passed it last month.

I believe there are compelling reasons why we should continue celebrating Rizal Day on Dec. 30.

Rizal’s death, not his birth, is the greater event. Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living,” inferring that assessing the value of a person’s life can only be done when he or she has lived most of his or her years. At birth, a person is mere tabula rasa, a blank tablet yet to receive the impressions of experience. The newborn Rizal, like any newborn, held nothing more than the promise of a life that could be filled with meaning.

His death, on the other hand, summed up his life, held the record of what he had become, and defined its meaning. The blank tablet of his birth was now impressed with experience, the most notable of which was dying for his country.

‘We only die once’

And what an exceptional death it was!

In his dreams, Rizal had taken the executioner’s bullet many times, moving him to write of his wish to show by example how to die for duty and principles. “We only die once,” he said. In death, he showed the world that the Filipino knows how gloriously to die for his country.

His death was framed with passion and mystique. Bagumbayan, in the early hours of Dec. 30, 1896, was thronged with people, announcing clearly by their numbers not only that an execution was to occur but that a turning point in history was to take place.

And when the fateful moment came, Rizal was more than ready. Minutes before he faced the firing squad, a doctor, marveling at his calmness, felt his pulse. It was normal.

No blindfold

Rizal declined the blindfold and chose to be shot on his feet, standing and head high. He wanted to die facing the firing squad, because, he reasoned, only traitors were shot in the back and he was no traitor. He was denied that wish, so when the order to fire came, he swung around. Instead of falling on his face, he fell on his back, “the sightless eyes staring at the sun.” His last cry was “Consummatum est.”

One argument in support of the bill says “birth anniversaries of national heroes are usually celebrated rather than their deaths.” The commemoration of national heroes does not follow a rule written on stone. Births, deaths or days of great achievements can be milestones for commemoration. The fundamental objective is to choose an event which locks the lives of the hero and his nation in a tight embrace of context and meaning, so compelling and inextricable, that one sees in that specific event the spirit of the nation at its best. Rizal’s death, more than his birth, embodies that spirit.

Our tradition honoring Rizal on his death anniversary goes back to Aguinaldo’s 1898 decree. Still shedding their blood to found a nation, the revolucionarios began a tradition that generations thereafter continued. Surely that century-old tradition, seared in the powerful drama that founded our nation, cannot be simply set aside in exchange for following what is “usually celebrated” elsewhere under other, more different circumstances.

In this Yuletide season, Jesus Christ comes to mind. Not just a national hero but the hero of Christiandom, His birth has given rise to a global holiday that bears His name. But the Church’s richest commemorations recall His death and resurrection, not His birth. Lent, not Christmas, is the premier event in the Christian calendar.

The birth of the Child Jesus was indeed propitious, but more so only because it eventually led to the death of Jesus the Savior, who gave His life to redeem mankind and through His resurrection to make good His promise of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Practical reason

The supporters of the bill also argue that observing Rizal Day on June 19 is more practical as “classes have just started and students would be able to actively participate in the commemorative activities,” whereas Dec. 30 falls during the Christmas break when school is out.

The commemoration of Rizal Day should be out of the range of things practical—of assigning value, as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. put it, by “looking away from first things” and “looking toward last things.” Practicality ignores the deeper salience and substance of Rizal’s death for the sake of convenience.

Beautiful tradition

June 19 is an official holiday in Laguna, Rizal’s home province. On this day, students, youth organizations, Rizalists and the officials of Laguna and the national government converge in Calamba, Rizal’s birthplace, to honor the national hero with a grand parade. Similar commemorative activities are held outside of Laguna, especially in schools all over the country.

By all means, we should continue this beautiful tradition. But we shouldn’t stop commemorating Rizal Day on Dec. 30, the more important date in Rizal’s life, because it is impractical. To do so is to misplace our values.

What’s wrong with honoring Rizal twice a year? It’s the least we can do to thank an exemplary man, the First Filipino, by Leon Ma. Guerrero’s reckoning, who had chosen to fall so that the country may rise.