The event commemorates the first baptism in the country officiated by Pedro de Valderama, the chaplain of the expedition led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, on April 14, 1521, as witnessed and documented by Antonio Pigafetta. Accounts by Pigafetta showed that about 800 natives, including Cebu’s chieftain, Rajah Humabon, and his wife, Hara Humamay, were baptized that day. Humabon and Humamay received the Christian names Carlos and Juana, respectively. Magellan presented Juana an image of Sto. Niño, or the Holy Child Jesus, and later asked to be baptized. They were said to be the first to embrace Christianity in the Philippines.