The El Circulo Fernandino is the annual reception and ball of the City of San Fernando, Pampanga to open the fiesta celebrations culminating on May 30. It is one of the most prestigious social events in Pampanga where, as in the olden days, women would flaunt their best jewelry, gowns and ternos, and men would elegantly dress in their best pina barongs, and dance the night away. El Circulo Fernandino is the oldest surviving social club in Pampanga. Formed sometime 1920, it was an organization for the social elite of San Fernando. Its precursor was the La Gente Alegre de San Fernando (The Merry Folks).
According to John Larkin in his book The Pampangans, “a new phenomenon, town and provincial social clubs, which sprang up in the early American years, demonstrated how the native upper class flourished under the new regime. These organizations, exclusively for the elite, provided among other things an opportunity for young single adults to socialize with and meet others of the same age and class.”
Larkin later mentions, “the Pampangan elite, a greater number of them emulating late nineteenth century patterns of behavior, turned their attention to peer group organizations, politics, and extra provincial activities. They resolved many if their economic and political problems by banding together into various agricultural organizations and political parties. The trend toward forming upper-class social clubs for amusement also continued. Such groups as the Young Generation in Macabebe, the Kundiman in Angeles, and the Circulo Fernandino in San Fernando were all patterned after organizations formed in the early American years.” Also worth mentioning is the fact that when the town of Santo Tomas was still part of San Fernando, the Thomasian, an organization which organized the annual Sabado de Gloria Ball, was formed. The ball is the oldest uninterrupted social event in Pampanga.
El Circulo Fernandino organized annuals balls and receptions to achieve this end. All of it however stopped as a result of the hostilities during the Second World War. After the war, the organization again resumed its social activities. But the annual receptions were halted again in 1987.
It was only in 1997 that the organization decided to revive its annual receptions under the presidency of Engr. Angelo David and Dr. Leticia Cordero-Yap. The El Circulo Fernandino Foundation, Inc. was born as a result of this revival, transforming the organization from a strictly social-status club to a socially involved organization.
As part of keeping up with Filipino traditions, the immortal dance classic, the rigodon de honor, is performed by the prominent citizens of the City, men in their best piña barongs and women in dazzling and colorful ternos.[1]