A New Year Story
(This story was written on January 1, 2008. It was for a national daily. But then, it was not published, so I’m posting it here. Yeah, I know it’s late! But there must be a lesson somewhere…)
The Earth shook, large firecrackers exploded with roaring noises, thick smoke rose into the air.
It’s 12 o’clock in the afternoon of January 1, the time and day Pogo Grande village in Dagupan City welcomes the New Year – perhaps the only village in the county that celebrates new year just as everyone is woozy from the past night’s revelry.
For more than 10 years this village has been holding the activity, said barangay chair George Galvan. It was started during the term of then chair Saturnino Siapno when the residents who manufacture firecrackers wanted to explode their unsold products.
It has grown grander yearly, he said. This year, a total of 75,000 firecrackers were strung together and hung above the street or lined along the road of Centro of Pogo Grande. In the western part of the village called Sagur, another 50,000 firecrackers were also exploded.
The residents started arranging the firecrackers at early as seven o’clock in the morning. The first explosive, a large rebentador, was lit at exactly 12 p.m. For the next 30 minutes, thunderous explosions pierced the air as residents watched from the sidelines, their hands covering their ears.
Then intermittent explosions followed until at around one o’clock, the village was silent and the roads littered with papers from firecrackers.
The barangay officials are ready for any eventually, Galvan said. Every year, a fire truck and an ambulance are on stand by to response to accidents.
“But there have been no untoward incident that occurred in the past 10 years,” Galvan said.
After the explosions have died, the residents retire to their houses, ready to partake of left over food from the Noche Buena the night before.
A resident said the residents also welcome New Year at 12 in the morning of January 1 with firecrackers and pyrotechnics. But they reserve the biggest explosives for the following day.
Many residents contribute to make the celebration bigger, former barangay village head Jojo Ramos said. Some balikbayans give money to buy firecrakers.
The manufacturers also make sure that the firecrackers used are safe, he said.
The celebration has become an attraction of sorts for the village as many residents from other barangays and other towns come to watch as firecrackers boom along the roads.
An observer said it was “very peculiar” to celebrate with deafening noises and environmentally-unfriendly materials, something that would need a social scientist to explain.