by Today marks the beginning of a new year of hope for Boholanos. Most of the Boholanos are wishing for a more fruitful and disaster-free year. The past year may have brought a lot of problems to the Boholanos but 2014 also brought a lot of opportunities and good memories for Boholanos. We may have experienced a lot of disasters including the recent calamity brought by the storm Seniang but Boholanos are still positive to face the challenges of the year 2015.
Jam-packed Malls
During the last day of 2014, most of the malls here in Tagbilaran City were jam-packed with buyers who were rushing to buy their needed ingredients for the media noche party. When we went to Plaza Marcela, there were long lines on the grocery counters. If someone had no choice but to get into the huge number of buyers, it would take around 1 hour to be persistent in lining up for the grocery counter. We decided to buy our needed ingredients in the late afternoon enough for the other buyers to finish with buying their needs. Unfortunately, most of the grocery items were already lacking due to the jam-packed buyers during the day.
Crowded Fruit Stands
Part of the fun in getting ready for New Year’s Eve is to come up with twelve (12) round fruits, each to signify a month of the year. Boholanos were busy with getting the 12 round fruits to be put on the table in order to bring luck for the new year. With this, fruit stands were busy with the huge crowd of fruit buyers. Some of the fruits displayed were bananas, apples, oranges, pineapples, watermelons and many others.
Long lines on the ATMs
Boholanos were also rushing on the ATMs to have their money for the media noche. We all know that one of the common beliefs of Boholanos is to avoid spending on the new year’s day. It has been a belief from the Filipino ancestors that spending money during New Year means spending money extravagantly for the entire year. With this, Boholanos made sure that they were able to buy all their needs on the last day of the year.
Pictures of Foods on Facebook Walls
It is common for Boholanos to have a dinner together with the family during the New Year’s Eve. The traditional dinner has already levelled up into sharing the images of the foods and the pictures of the family on the social networking sites like Facebook. This is also a great way for those who are outside the Philippines to experience how their loved ones in Bohol have celebrated the New Year’s eve. Biko, cakes and other pastries were served during the dinner to have a sweet year ahead.
Firework Displays
As the clock ticked on 12 o’clock, noises of various vehicles and appliances were heard in Tagbilaran City and other towns in the province of Bohol. Aside from the noises of the firecrackers, loud noises from the “torotots” were also noticeable upon embracing the new year. For those who have the budget for a grand celebration in welcoming the new year, they were able to have firework displays. I was spending my New Year’s eve in Tagbilaran City for the first time. As I went outside of our house, there were a lot of firework displays. When one firework display ends, another firework display started.
Messages of Wishes and Encouragements
To inspire our loved ones for the new year, wishes and encouraging messages circulated on the text messages. There were wishes of having a prosperous new year for the friends and loved ones. Inspiring messages were also shared on facebook to give hope for Boholanos that a new year will be a year for us to recover from the previous calamities and to strive for more.
For 2015, your blogger aims to provide more information and up-to-date happenings of our province, Bohol. This quote from Brad Paisley as indicated on the image below has been shared a lot of times on the social networking sites on the New Year’s eve. This is a great quote for us to reflect on how are we going to help Bohol on its development.
Happy New Year, mga Sano ug Sana!
