Buwan ng Wika

For @Ken.

Here are some info which might be helpful:

Buwan ng Wika is a month-long celebration of the national language, which is Filipino. Sometimes, it is called "Linggo ng Wika," which when translated in English means "Week of Language," because the celebration was originally only a week long.
Aside from reflecting the importance of having Filipino as a national language, the celebration calls for every Filipino to go back to their roots, and embrace our culture which is slowly being forgotten. Schools from around the country encourage their students to speak in their native languages or in Tagalog, which is where the Filipino language is based on. Some government offices and agencies also observe it.

Contests and presentations are held every August to show everyone that the Filipino language is alive and well as well as to make it known that we are happy to have it as our own language, that we are glad it is one of the things that define our culture. These include sabayang pagbigkas (speech choir), poster-making, slogan-making, plays, singing contests, writing contests, Balagtasan (a debate using poetic verses) and many others. The main event is usually celebrated during the last Friday of the month, and back in my high school we are even instructed to wear Filipiniana clothing so we really could feel that we are Filipinos and also to express our love for our country.

History:

• March 26, 1946 - Pres. Sergio Osmeña signed the Proclamation No. 35 to mark March 27th until the second day of April as the official "Linggo ng Wika"
• September 23, 1955 - Pres. Ramon Magsaysay moved the dates up to the 13th until the 19th day of May, to commemorate the birth date of Pres. Manuel Luis Quezon, who is considered the "father of the national language" (Proclamation No. 186)
  
• Since the Linggo ng Wika was moved up to summer, students and teachers found it impossible to celebrate the event
• August 12, 1988 - Pres. Cory Aquino, using Proclamation No. 19, then moved the dates to the 13th up to 19th August every year.
• January 15, 1997 - Pres. Fidel Ramos, to uphold Pres. Aquino's proclamation, declared the whole month of August as the Buwan ng Wika using Proclamation No. 1041.
  

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Note:
Some information in here (especially the history part) were translated from Wikipilipinas.
Wikipilipinas: Para sa pilipino. (2009, 28 July). Philippines: Filipiniana.NET. Retrieved August 29, 2009 from http://fil.wikipilipinas.org/