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New Year’s Eve tradition persists amid modernization
By Cris Diaz

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Jan. 1 (PNA) -- The internet revolution failed to conquer the time-honored tradition of the Filipinos living in the countryside in determining the luck and misfortune of the incoming year.

Together with members of the family, Teodoro Magsakay, 58, farmer, sat in the receiving room of the makeshift farmhouse as the countdown of the New Year’s Eve start.

Magsakay was only Grade 4 and farming was the only means of livelihood in a mountain village in Agusan Del Norte where he raised a family of four.

Although living as a marginal farmer, he makes sure that all the family members would be around to partake a piece of roasted native chicken, glutinous rice (biko), pork adobo, sweet potatoes and cooked bananas.

As the New Year’s Eve revelry exploded in the four corners of the village, Magsakay cautions the members of the family to listen to some distinct and peculiar sounds.

Magsakay was neither interested in pyrotechnic display nor in the sound of the firecrackers.

Instead, Magsakay was intently listening to the sound of distinct animals that might join the noise barrage amid the New Year’s Eve revelry.

He said that the sound of the distinct animal would guide and decide the destiny of the incoming year.

The sound of a buffalo signals a productive, persistent and a promising year, while the sound of a dog would mean a dangerous and trying year, Magsakay said.

He said that the crow of the Rooster would mean a difficult year because a Rooster means a “kakha-tuka” (hand-to-mouth) existence.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2017 is the Year of the Rooster, which signifies misfortune. The Chinese horoscope advices one “to be prepared for the great change in life in 2017.”

The previous Year of the Rooster was in 2005 and the next would be in 2029.

This year, however, Magsakay heard the squealing pig, nervous in the sound of firecrackers thrown by the frolicking children in the neighborhood. While the Year of the Pig might not bring in misfortune, Magsakay said it would be a lousy and dreary year ahead. (PNA)

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