What a trip it has been so far, and I can’t believe it’s actually almost over in one week. I feel as if I could do a separate post on
just New Year’s Eve/New Year’s since it was so unlike anything I had ever seen. So, maybe I will do just that, actually..
My family’s New Year’s Eve was spent in San Juan, which is where my mom grew up (in Manila – the capitol of the Philippines). We were with all my family, which I didn’t know I had so much family! Pretty much the whole alley/street that my mom grew up on is surrounded by family members, some I had never even met before. For dinner, we had lumpia (one of my absolute favorite Filipino foods!), pansit, pork, macaroni soup, which I think was all made by my aunt. It’s so funny being around her, because she reminds me so much of my mom. They make the same facial expressions and everything.
So to continue, after eating dinner, my uncle (we call him Tito) Boyet kept disappearing, and same with my cousin Jimmy. I found out they were going into the street, drinking and just hanging out. My dad wanted to go, and my mom wouldn’t let me because she didn’t want me around a bunch of drunken guys (for obvious reasons…). My dad decided he was going to take me anyway, along with Jimmy and my other cousin Dexter, and they’d keep a good eye on me. I didn’t drink or anything; even if it is legal here. Technically, the legal drinking age is 18, but no one ever follows it apparently – not even the law haha.
When we finally got to the area where my uncle was, it honestly was nothing bad at all. My mom is just paranoid when it comes to me, and doesn’t think I can take care of myself. Everyone there was very nice to me; yes I was the only girl around, and 1 gay guy who I guess you could consider another girl – but everyone was super nice, and was even getting me chairs and stuff. When it came to the explosives, everyone especially my Tito Boyet was covering me. Before we went out though, I hung out with my 2 cute little cousins along with my 26 (soon to be 27) cousin Grace. One of my young cousins is 6, MJ; and the other is I think 2, Jiana. I started to teach little Jiana some manners, because she doesn’t know many of those… haha – Like “Excuse me!” She is the cutest thing ever; I might include a picture of both my adorable cousins. Because yes, they are seriously cuter than your cousins I guarantee it!!!
Now to the explosions!
Ahhh.. probably my favorite part of the whole evening. The firecrackers were absolutely amazingly LOUD! In the US, it is illegal to obtain firecrackers, if I remember – but here, it is completely legal, and everyone has them. Here in Manila, you can’t have a New Year’s without tons of firecracker explosions! I have never heard something so loud in my life. With some, they are little firecrackers that you light with a match, and you wait about 5 seconds and it explodes and makes a loud noise.
Those at first were scaring me, until I went to the area where my cousins and uncle were at. WOW!!! With the much larger ones that were being set off in the street where we were, were so explosive. Unlike anything I had seen or heard. With the larger ones, you hear a whistle, the kind that was in the ACME cartoons, then silence. You couldn’t really time when it would go off, because it seemed to be different with each explosion. Like the smaller firecrackers there was explosion, but this was much, much more powerful and you could actually feel it! It was so funny; when people would hear the whistle, they all new to turn around, and/or cover their ears (which I did). I also think it was a funny thing to say that I felt like a third world country being blown up, trying to explain what it felt like. But I was in a third world country, however
watching an explosion – not actually
being blown up. It was like the World War II movies, except no one gets blown up. They do it for fun here, and everyone is doing it!
For the rest of the night, we watched explosions, and the biggest, or I guess longest lasting one was the “Anaconda”. That firecracker was so long that I’m pretty sure it was almost the length of a football field. It went all the way down into my mom’s street, allllll the way into the actual street. It was colossal! It was like tiny firecrackers, bunched together into a huge line to make one extreme one. It went off one after the other, not all at once. For the Anaconda, I had to cover my ears. I didn’t have to close my eyes so much; it was the sound and brightness of it that got to me however I prevailed and was able to videotape it! As the Anaconda was exploding, people started to follow it, cheering and yelling. When it came to actual fireworks, it was also unlike I anything I had ever seen or experienced. Typically in the US, fireworks are seen from a great distance. The closest I had been was at Pioneer Parkway where they set them off, even though they still set them off from a distance you can’t even see, for obvious safety reasons I’m sure. HERE, when they set off fireworks, it was if not 30/40 feet from where I was standing, and it was almost like the fireworks were falling down on top of everyone and me! I had to completely crane my neck to look directly above me, because that’s what it was like. I wasn’t looking out into the distance or cocking my head just a little upward – ohhh no no no. I had my neck
completely turned upward, and I don’t remember now if I felt the firework flame things actually coming back touching me – but I was definitely close enough if it did. The fireworks were so beautiful, and so big. It was spectacular.
While we were outside with the fireworks and other explosives, my dad happened to be turned around during one (he wasn’t aware it was about to go off), and we all got little particles on us. That actually happened with a lot of the explosives, and we all had little nicks on our legs from the tiny particles that hit us. My cousin actually has a huge bruise on her thigh from one! Anyway, from that extremely powerful explosive that went off, my dad was turned around and he actually got a piece in his eye. He started to move around and was kindof in shock I guess you could say, and we were trying to hold him steady to see what happened. It turned out that yes, there was a particle in his right eye, and it actually started to bleed. Sad, and ick. We brought him back to the house and washed his eye out, and the next morning it was gone and he didn’t feel a thing.
Another thing that might be interesting was, money throwing. Apparently about 20 years ago when my dad and mom came here last time, my dad started to throw money at the children, and he enjoyed watching them dive for it and everything, so he just kept throwing more and more money (US money) at them. That night, my dad and mom saw it happening again, but this time the parents from the 2nd story of the neighbor’s house were throwing down coins. My parents laughed, because they apparently started that on the street. I know there is some money giving tradition that my aunt argued was what they were doing, but I guess it never happened until my dad started throwing money that one year, and they kept doing that ever year after that.
New Year’s was so fun, and such an amazing experience. I’m glad I took videos, so you can all see, but honestly it just won’t feel the same. I wish you could all see what I sounded like the first time I heard what was then one of the small firecrackers (I basically screamed bloody murder haha!), and what everyone in the street was like. What the explosives all felt like, how it could almost push you backward. It was one of the best moments I have experienced in my life; definitely in the top 5. Or top 2 even.
