Why Filipinos Lack Nationalism

This morning it dawned on me one possible reason why we Filipinos lack nationalism.  I think that we are too young as a country that it had not been fully imbedded yet in our "diwa" our being Filipinos.  Look at China for example.  Their history dates back to B.C. (Before Christ).  They experienced the ups and downs as a country for thousands of years already.  Now look at us.  We became aware of our existence as a country during barely half of the 20th century.  Even our country's name "Philippines" was derived from King Philip of Spain.  There was no unifying entity that held Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao together so we can call ourselves a country.  (Or is it because we didn't have good historians so we can only wonder what really went on before the Spaniards arrived?)

But enough with history.  Now I wonder why is it that we (and the rest of the world) have a lot of holidays (i.e. National Heroes Day, EDSA Day, Araw ng Kalayaan, UP 100 Years, Buwan ng Wika) but we don't have a day for celebrating our being a country (i.e. Philippines 500 years).  If we had The Day, I think it would be the biggest celebration every year (since it would be country-wide) and the second most exciting holiday (Christmas is the first).  Now THAT is a Party.