San Fabian Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: March 21, 2024

San Fabian is a 1st class municipality in the coastal province of Pangasinan on the island of Luzon, located 17 miles from the provincial capital of Lingayen. During the pre-colonial era, it was a barangay (independent village) named Angio, which means “the tree of bitter fruit”.

Upon the arrival of Europeans, friars of the Dominican Order established their mission in the area and petitioned the Spanish government to establish a town in Angio. The town of San Fabian was officially founded on March 21, 1717, when the Spanish Supreme Court granted their petition. The new town was named after Pope Fabian, who was the 20th bishop of Rome and died as a martyr on January 20, 250 at the beginning of the Decian persecution.

Around 1818, San Fabian and the neighboring town of Mangaldan started a boundary dispute that would go on for almost a century. It was finally settled in 1900, when the mayors of San Fabian and Mangaldan reached an agreement, and a boundary marker was erected between the two towns.

During the Philippine-American War, many people from San Fabian died defending their town from the Americans, but eventually the Philippines lost the war, and San Fabian, like the rest of Philippine cities and towns, fell under American administration. Ińigo Dispo became the town’s first president (mayor). In 1903, the neighboring town of Alava was integrated into San Fabian and became one of its barrios (neighborhoods).

During World War II, San Fabian was occupied by the Japanese together with the rest of Luzon. It was liberated by the I Corps of the United States Army during the Battle of Luzon. One of the biggest Allied landings in the battle and in the entire Pacific theater occurred on January 6, 1945, spanning the towns of San Fabian and Lingayen.

Today, San Fabian is a 1st class municipality with a population of more than 87,000 people (municipalities in the Philippines are divided into classes based on their average annual income; 1st class municipalities have the highest average income). The municipality is primarily known for its beaches and dried fish products (tyuo).

The founding anniversary of San Fabian is a special non-working holiday in the municipality. March 21, 2016 was first designated as San Fabian Day by President Benigno Aquino III, and in November 2018, the Senate of the Philippines officially declared it an annual holiday.