A Rainy, Quiet, and Safer 2009 New Year's Eve Celebration

It's always been a tradition for some to light up fireworks and firecrackers every New Year's Eve celebration. You'll see lots of people outside their houses watching the display and joining the rest of the community in welcoming the New Year. It was quite a bit of a different story last night. The rain poured continuously and due to that the celebration was a lot more silent than all of the past years I've celebrated New Year.

It was 11 in the evening and we were preparing the food and the sound system. We don't spend on fireworks anymore but we do use makeshift noise-generating stuff such as banging of the door, hitting aluminum and metal kitchenware, and shouting. It's much safer and we definitely save a lot.

It's common here in the Philippines to buy our own firecrackers and light them up every New Year's Eve. But as the years passed by, more alternatives on how to celebrate New Year's Eve appeared. Aside from being safe from firecracker-related accidents, most of the families join some parties such as big New Year countdowns. They have their own extravagant fireworks display which is done by professionals. The rain did not stop anyone from celebrating.

Every New Year, the different hospitals prepare for those who will have unfortunate accidents which are mostly due to firecrackers. It's really sad since there are some victims who would lose their limbs and even their lives while celebrating. But with the rain, there were less people who fired off their fireworks and most probably greatly decreased the number of victims this year. The rain last night is sort of good news since more people had a much safer celebration.

When the clock hit 12 AM, we increased the volume of our sound system and greeted each other a Happy New Year. We continued to make noises to drive bad luck away and we had our usual custom to keep money in our pockets and other good luck charms as the New Year begins so that we'll have a more prosperous year ahead. We ate quite a lot and we had food more than enough for the 3 of us. We had ham, chicken, pasta, cake, chocolate, and fruits.

Even though this year's celebration is not that noisy as before, we are still happy that we have surpassed the challenges in 2008 and we have high hopes and with faith in God, we'd have more blessings and a more prosperous 2009. The important thing was that we celebrated the New Year's Eve together (with my aunt and cousin on video phone). Have a prosperous New Year everyone!