Rizal Day is a Philippine national holiday commemorating the life and works of José Rizal, one of the Philippines’ national heroes. It is celebrated every December 30, the day of Rizal’s execution at Bagumbayan, now known as Rizal Park, in 1896.

Rizal Day was first instituted with a decree from President Emilio Aguinaldo dated December 20, 1898 as a national day of mourning for Rizal and all victims of the Spanish government during their rule in the Philippines.[1] Daet, Camarines Norte was the first town to follow the decree, building a monument designed by Lt. Col. Antonio Sanz, led by Sanz and Lt. Col. Ildefonso Alegre, and financed by the townfolk at Camarines Norte and the rest of the Bicol Region.[1][2] Finished on February 1899, the three-tiered stone pylon inscribing Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, and Morga, for Antonio de Morga, author of Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, a book about the early days of the Spanish colonization in the Philippines.[2]

With the victory of the Americans against the Spaniards in the Spanish-American War, the Americans took control of the Philippines. To make it appear that they were more pro-Filipino than the Spaniards, the American governor-general William Howard Taft in 1901 named Rizal as the Philippine national hero. A year later, on February 1, 1902, the Philippine Commission enacted Act No. 345, which made December 30 a public holiday.[1]

Article source link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizal_Day