New Year 2009

This new year was different from the previous new years.

It has been tradition that new year shoud be celebrated with a bang. And BANG is what we pinoys do! Year after year, firecracker makers have been coming up with stronger and deadlier firecrackers. Year after year, hospitals report an increasing number of firecracker related injuries. The banging start at around 9pm. By 10pm, going out of the house is like going into a warzone. Amidst the boom of firecrackers, wailing sirens are usually heard. It usually ends by 2am.

For the past few years, I noticed that the "boom-time" is getting shorter. Last year, everything was quiet by 1. This year, the banging started at about 11 and again, everything was quiet by 1. Even we, saw ourselves buying fewer and fewer firecrackers every year. Last year, we just bought a fountain (a firecracker that spews sparkles like a volcano) and a few "kwitis" (mini-rockets) and after lighting them proceed to watch the beautiful (and very expensive) fireworks of our neighbors. This year, we didn't buy any firecrackers and just contented ourselves with watching the beautiful (and still very expensive) fireworks of our neighbors. And the funny thing is, I also saw some of our neighbors just watching the beautiful (and still very expensive) fireworks of our other neighbors.

I could think of many reasons for this change. The continous ad campaign of the health department on the hazards of firecrackers, the financial crisis in our midst or (hopefully) people are becoming more mature in their new year celebrations.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!