New Years Tradition

• Gabriella Cruz, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

On a humid night at LGV* in Manilla Philippines on the 31st of December at 11:25 I was suddenly awakened by my cousin Mika and rushed downstairs. I asked her why she was rushing me and she said “We are about to begin our New Year’s Tradition! HURRY!” I was visiting the Philippines for holidays and it was my first time being here for New Year’s so I had no idea what was happening. As we were going down stair Mika explained to me that 30 minutes before New Year’s they would share a meal and then they would light fireworks on the street. Once I got downstairs I saw the table set up with a white table cloth and my favourite Filipino dishes being served onto the table. They called me over, as I walked there I smelt the delicious pork and I could see the steam from the rice on the table. I sat down and began eating, we all talked about memories that we had together as children and we all laughed together until we had finished eating. It was 11:50 so we all began making our way outside.

When I went outside I felt a brush of warm wind against my face, the air was thick and humid. I took a deep breath in and smelt the pork that my Uncle was cooking this morning. As I looked around I saw stray cats and dogs roaming around the streets and families next door having dinner in their front yard laughing with each other enjoying a meal. The moon was like a huge spotlight shining a light on to us in the dark sky and the stars were looking down on us as more stars began to appear. The neighbours' houses all had lights up celebrating Christmas as well as New Years, they were different shaped lanterns spread across the house and along very tall trees, which lighted up their house. I could hear my cousins arguing behind me over who should light the fireworks, they were too distracted that it was only a few seconds till New Year’s so we all began counting down 10… 9… 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!
Then we all shouted “HAPPY NEW YEARS!”

As we lit of the first firework it let out a loud bang and a string of light flew up to the sky, followed with the sparks racing to the ground disappearing as they went further down. The fireworks lit up the sky as different colours and sizes flew up one at a time. It looked amazing and it was an incredible night.




*Loyola Grand Villas, a village in Manilla where my cousin lives.