Neighborhoods have various ways of welcoming the New Year. While some places are blessed with grand fireworks displays, others have a more lie-low take on the celebration with a sit-down Media Noche. Christmas celebrations and Noche Buena are almost exclusive to Catholics, but New Year’s Eve celebrations know no bounds – whether you’re religious or not, pro or anti-President, flat-Earther or sane. Still, revelers of the evening celebration can be categorized quite distinctly. Meet them below.

You started drinking early with your kumpares because you had already reserved a case of alcohol from the sari-sari store nearby. Your wife – or your kumpare’s wife – just brought you pulutan for dinner. In an alternate neighborhood, you as a tito do not only have a beer in one hand but also a microphone on the other. One of your kumpares had rented a videoke machine until midnight. The late-night drinking and singing are all made possible because firecrackers are the only things banned today – at least, hindi ka nagpapaputok, ‘di ba?

You’ve managed to snatch a couple of firecrackers despite the ban. You bought the fountain in a bottle and took out your boxes of piccolos because you want to end the year and begin a new one with a BANG.

You did it again this year. You’re not ashamed because you’re a believer, and there’s never a harm in trying. Most of the time. You will never outgrow jumping on New Year’s Eve because, hey, excitement entails jumping, right?

You were the kid who cried New Year. You flaunted your new torotot way before midnight. You kept honking your toy trumpet on the morning of the last day of 2017. You also became the star of multiple Facebook posts expressing confusion as to why you’re making noise even though the moon hasn’t risen yet.

You bided your time at work – outside the mall entrance or inside a cubicle taking a call. It’s a 24-hour operations and someone’s got to do it – and at least you did it for double the pay. You greeted the closest stranger or colleague a Happy New Year and you went home with a really nice breakfast on the first day of the year.

Polka dots is your dress of choice. You made sure that the dots were big and loud and would stand out against the basket of 12 round fruits you carried. You had prepared ma-miso months ahead to shower your neighbors. But before the paagaw, you stashed your silver coins inside a Tupperware and made noise around the house to shoo the bad spirits away.

It remains a mystery how every year you manage to sleep through the loud karaoke, the crackling pyrotechnics, and your mother who cooked for medianoche. Like the Jumping Joe, you might never outgrow this habit of yours. But, maybe that’s okay, you’d be the earliest bird to the drunk and sleep-laden worms this year anyway.

So, who were you last New Year’s Eve? XD

About the author

Rennie is a writer and editor with quite a background in the ESL industry. For the most part, she’s an ordinary office girl; but once you talk to her, you’ll discover that she’s a mind-wanderer.