We are honoring the Fiesta tradition with our new 2022 Polish Heritage Center Fiesta medal, beautifully designed by Monarch Trophy, San Antonio. The medal is now available for purchase for $20.00 (includes tax) for this first limited edition medal while supplies last. If interested in purchasing, please contact Angelica Docog, angelicad@polishheritagecentertx.org, or purchase on-site at the PHC during visiting hours, Thursday-Sunday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM.
Since 1891 Fiesta has been a long-time annual tradition each April in San Antonio, Texas with many celebrations, parades, and public and private festivals that take place in April each year and lasts for about two weeks. Locals and visitors from around the globe travel to attend. Most of the celebrations are fundraisers that benefit the community charities, non-profit organizations, and parishes.
Fiesta was started in 1891 by Ellen Maury Slayden, wife of a Texas Congressman. She conceived of a flower parade to honor the soldiers who fought in the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. Famous people and politicians loved to attend the parade. By 1895 the parade had grown into a week-long festival, and the city started to name a Fiesta Queen and King. Custom made Fiesta medals first appeared in 1946 when Texas Cavaliers had special coins made for children in the hospital. They would bring these coins at Fiesta time to cheer the children. The first-ever military-style medal that was handed out to the public during Fiesta was a introduced in 1980 by a Lt. Col. Childers. By the early 1990s, businesses and other organizations were handing out their own custom-designed medals.
Since then, tens of thousands of medals have been produced. Some of them are celebratory, some are meaningful to the organization, some are just cool and funny. But people spend weeks, if not months, collecting as many medals as they can to wear (usually on a sash) during Fiesta (source: https://fiestamedals.com).
