Every New Year’s Eve, noise takes over.
Fireworks go off like it’s the Fourth of July in the US, except the street is narrow, the houses are close, and the wiring looks nervous. Motorcycles roar like someone is being chased by Nicolas Cage in an action movie. In the kitchen, pots, pans, and ladles discover their second life as a drum machine.
The belief is simple. Make noise to drive away bad luck and evil spirits.
But every year, the noise comes with hassle.
Fireworks are meant to scare bad luck away. Yet someone always gets burned. A hand is injured. A finger is lost. Sometimes, a house catches fire. Bad luck does not leave. It just arrives early and causes damage.
There was even a real case in Las Piñas. On New Year’s Eve in 2007, a rocket-type firework landed on the roof of the Mary Immaculate Parish Nature Church and caused a fire. The roof burned. A church lost its shelter because of a celebration meant to welcome good luck. That moment quietly asks a question. If noise drives away bad luck, why did it find a roof to land on?
Then there are motorcycles.
One revs loudly. Another responds. Then another. Suddenly, it becomes a battle. Not good versus evil, but muffler versus muffler. Whoever is louder feels victorious, even though nobody asked for a winner and the whole street just wants sleep.
At that point, the noise is no longer celebration. It is competition.
If evil spirits were watching, they were probably confused. Or entertained. Or already gone, letting people do the damage themselves.
Noise was supposed to protect. Instead, it brings injuries, fires, stress, and anger. It does not scare bad luck away. It seems to magnet it closer.
Peace does not need volume. Safety does not explode. Respect does not rev at midnight.
Welcoming the new year should not mean hurting others or burning roofs.
What’s coming is Twenty Twenty Six. Let’s not welcome it like it’s Twenty Twenty Sick.
Maybe good luck does not arrive with noise. Maybe it stays where things are calm.
And maybe the quiet house is the one that starts the year right.
⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ
