Minalin

Minalin is a fourth class highly urbanized municipality in the province of Pampanga, Philippines. The town is known for its 400-year-old church, the Santa Monica Parish Church, with its unique design that incorporates pre-colonial architectural motif alongside its European Catholic iconography. Minalin is also known for its "Aguman Sanduk" New Year's Celebration, where in which the town's straight men dress up as beauty queens and ride through town on festive floats. The town is also referred to as the "Egg Basket of Luzon" because of its large-scale production of eggs and chickens, prompting the town to put up the Philippines' first egg festival in 2008.Originally known as Minalis, it is a town of 44,001 people according to the 2010 census. It has a land area of about 48.27km2, and it is located south-west of the capital city of San Fernando.EtymologyPansomun, in his will, claimed to be a cousin of Rajah Soliman and Lakandula, the chieftains of Manila and Tondo in 1571 . Pansomun, as Christian convert Fernando Malang Balagtas signed in 1589 a will on the Kapampangan territory. Pansomun/Balagtas stated that he was born in Tabungao .The legend of Minalin's name came from "minalis la ding dutung, minalis ya ing pisamban" . Lumber stocks at Sta. Maria for the church construction were carried by floods to a hilly Burol. Capitan Diego Tolentino wrote "minalis", thus, the name Minalin evolved.