Car ploughs through crowd in Vancouver: What is Lapu-Lapu Day, which victims were celebrating

Thousands had gathered in Vancouver to celebrate Lapu-Lapu Day when the man ploughed through the crowd, driving over the revellers.

April 27 was declared as Lapu-Lapu Day in British Columbia two years ago, in honour of the significant Filipino population in this Canadian province. What is the day, and why is it celebrated? We explain.

What is Lapu-Lapu Day?

Lapu-Lapu Day is observed on the anniversary of the Battle of Mactan, fought in 1521. In this battle, the chieftain (or Datu) of the Mactan island, Lapulapu, defeated Spanish forces under Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan died of the injuries sustained in this battle, and Lapulapu is celebrated as a hero who defended his land against foreign invaders.

The Lapu-Lapu Day website says, “On April 27, 2023, a significant and heartfelt moment of recognition unfolded in the province of British Columbia as Lapu-Lapu Day was officially declared…This declaration not only honours the heroic legacy of Datu Lapu-Lapu but also symbolises the cultural harmony and mutual respect that thrive in the province of British Columbia.”

What is known about Lapulapu?

Ferdinand Magellan is the explorer after whom the Strait of Magellan, the key natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is named, and whose team completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Thus, the battle in which he lost his life is well-known, but little is recorded about his adversary, Lapulapu, besides a mention by the Venetian scholar and Magellan’s assistant Antonio Pigafetta. In fact, it was only in 2021 that then Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte signed an order that standardised the spelling of the hero’s name as Lapulapu, and not Lapu-Lapu.

Pigafetta had recorded the name of Mactan’s chieftain as Çilapulapu, but it is now believed that ‘Si’ was the honorific derived from the Sanskrit ‘Sri’.

The story of Lapulapu’s heroics is very popular in the Philippines, and a basic version goes thus: Magellan reached the Philippines in 1521 and managed to win the allegiance of several chieftains, including Rajah Humabon of Cebu, Lapulapu’s rival. Another chieftain called Zula told Magellan that Lapulapu was not allowing his tribute to the Spanish party to pass through. Magellan then decided to go to Mactan, along with Humabon, to subdue Lapulapu.

The first setback to the Europeans was that their bigger ships with artillery could not go close to the island because of rocks in the water. Then, in combat, Lapulapu’s forces, with their arrows, bamboo lances, and other traditional weapons, managed to defeat the invaders, mortally wounding Magellan himself.

“This battle has entered the canon of Philippine history and, indeed, is etched in Philippine nationalist consciousness. Lapu Lapu is a national hero, and his victory over Magellan is extolled as a typical example of prehispanic Philippine martial prowess,” a 2007 research paper by Jose Amiel Angeles, published in the journal Philippine Studies (Volume 55, The Battle of Mactan and the Indigenous Discourse on War), says.