Presidential Proclamation N. 439 declared every May as the observance of the National Heritage Month with the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) as the lead government agency in the celebration purposely to champion heritage and empower communities to honor the country’s rich culture. Through the years, various laws had been enacted to further safeguard the country’s cultural heritage while the NCCA continues to build in capacity building initiatives and other tools such as cultural mapping and the maintenance of the Philippine Registry of Heritage that shall be kept accessible to every Filipino to identify, protect and immortalize our ancestral history and identity.
For this year, the theme of the National Heritage Month celebration is ‘Preserving Legacies, Building Futures: Empowering Communities Through Heritage’ which emphasizes the significant role of empowered communities, particularly the youth, indigenous peoples, and local artisans, while calling for the preservation of cultural traditions, stories, and practices passed down through generations.
Relatedly, the education department encourages schools in the different parts of the country to actively participate in the 2025 National Heritage Month celebration to help remind the people of the significant role heritage plays in connecting generations, fostering unity, and driving the preservation of our shared cultural and historical treasures.
This year’s theme not only honors the past but also enable communities to thrive, from the indigenous people to urban communities, where the call is for collaboration and collective efforts among the various sectors to safeguard our rich cultural identity. Further, schools and educational institutions have been urged to actively share the post materials related to the 2025 National Heritage month observance that include the official poster, Facebook banners, and calendar of activities on school websites and social media pages. By doing so, people can help raise awareness and engage the community in heritage preservation efforts.
The public is also being asked to join the official online campaign by sharing heritage-related content by using various hash tags and to spread messages of heritage appreciation across social media platforms. People can post photos, videos, and news features from NCCA’s pages or contribute their own heritage stories to enrich the discussion.
On the other hand, schools and organizations can organize or attend a variety of 336 National Heritage Month-related activities that include seminars, workshops, lectures, webinars and exhibits that focus on heritage conservation and cultural awareness. People can also submit their respective proposals on their planned activities and have it featured in the official National Heritage Month calendar of events. Schools and communities should document and share their respective activities by submitting a detailed activity report and high-quality photos to the secretariat. The report will be included in the production of the souvenir program that will help highlight the efforts made to preserve and celebrate the nation’s heritage.
We believe this year’s theme and target audience is very much appropriate because of the deteriorating awareness of the youth on the rich culture and heritage of their respective communities primarily because of the serious negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated by the prevalence of mental health issues among the people and the advancement of information and communication technology that sometimes distracts the youth from being rooted in their culture. Today’s youth concentrate much on the use of their gadgets for their pleasure and recreation but not for productive purposes, such as learning unhealthy attitudes and practices that impacts on their relations with others. Most of them are not fully aware of the culture and heritage of their respective communities that poses a serious threat in the government’s efforts to inculcate on them the importance of preserving cultures and heritage that will translate to empowered communities.
Targeting the various social media platforms to raise awareness on the importance of preserving the country’s rich culture and heritage is important. Related to this, those in charge of doing so must make sure that the same information materials are attractive or pleasing to the eyes of the youth for them to be enticed to read through and enrich their knowledge on the heritage of their respective communities. Let us learn to maximize the potentials of the social media platforms to the fullest in effectively and efficiently sharing the important information related to our rich culture and heritage so that it can be internalised by the youth amidst their being too exposed to social media.
The government should not allow its programs, projects and activities to be overshadowed by games or other entertainment activities that continue to get the attention of the youth that move them away from more important engagements and learnings. Let us usher in the National Heritage Month with approaches and activities that make our youth fully appreciate the country’s rich culture and heritage for them to appreciate and feel obligated to pass these on to the future generations like what our ancestors did to us.
