Still was at it. December 24 saw PI Jesse B. dela Cruz of Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Station 4, engaging with kagawad Jackson Chiday of Loakan Barangay, campaigning on illegal activities, particularly on illicit drugs, distributed IEC materials on crime prevention to storeowners and advised them no selling of firecrackers.
Rosa A. Bengwayan and family extend their profound condolence to the family of Edwin Fillag of Bontoc, Mountain Province, who recently passed away.
We now take the road (either paved, rugged or abo-abot nga kalsada) towards an expectant period of a “baro nga tawen,” during which Time, dead-tired tired and spent for the year 2018, seemed to have folded a mantle of repose about him and laid down his head to a long slumber – from which he now rises revitalized to start anew his compassionate and limitless energies of production and increase.
Sure, we’ll be awaiting for the last minute, as it will, by the side of retiring year 2018, when the clock strikes at 12:00 midnight of December 30 to usher 2019.
And when 2019 comes knocking on your door, op kors, naman, gladly, say you, “Hi 2019! Ayna sumrek ka! Come on in, our new and kind hearted friend of Aud Lang Syne! Sumrek ka ta agkape wenno ag-itsa ta, perhaps?”
Your heart skipping heartily, you continue, saying, “Well, now, young 2019 gentleman, let me shake your hand with my callused yet dainty little hand, and greet you lovingly with right good will. “Aye, welcome, indeed, young 2019 gentleman, welcome to the frosty January for your venerable countenance carries joy to every little heart.”
Anybody for that matter who can view with cold spirit the changes that went with the year 2018 can, you might say, insensible, in which transformations have gone.
There’s vividness in the teachings of a year time, which long familiarity cannot diminish, nor continued repetitions wear out.
That writings of the year 2018 are written on the walls, is a truth so obvious, or the mind assents to it at once even without the trouble of reflecting upon it.
There’s an eloquence in 2018’s exhortations that must arrest our attention, a music in his voice, which familiarity renders but more sweet. 2018 reminds that as he goes away with overflowing white beard overflowing, while leaning on his cane from tiredness, “so must every Cordilleran or Region 1 citizen forge ahead or move on, no matter what might have happened. Let each year renews your dreams and reawakens the same lessons.”
The peculiar changes, every time a year changes, which affects our scenery are as obvious and common as anything can well be.
No matter what one may contemplate the same scenes so obvious and common, they have lost no more of their influence than of their old beauty.
Yet we cannot turn in wariness from them as from a stale joke or an oft-repeated story.
These peculiar changes, stale joke or oft-repeated story can be found in one common gripe in all of us who often with melancholy, say, “Ayna, napan manen ti maysa a tawen; linmakay/binmaket tayo manen!” (Another year passed, and we are growing older.)
Or, others, particularly our dear ladies in the hinterlands and lowlands, would soberly stand before the mirror, investigate their faces closely, pout, and adamantly refuse to admit to the fact and nothing but the fact, that another line had been, indeed, added to their beautiful and fragile countenances.
Kuretret ti mugging and white line fever (white hair) added to our make-up only proves our faces are well written pages and Time alone was the pen with his penmanship.
For the mirror doesn’t lie; it, too, knows another year has passed, with or without creases added on our foreheads.
These peculiar and melancholy changes, like, “Ayna, kaaruba, lumaklakay/binmaket tayo manen! Ag rheuma nak samet! Kitam ni, dinmakkel bilbil ko saan kon mausar dyay seksi nga kawes ko, or naglammin tatta a New Year, and my hands freeze with the cold.”
Being melancholy with the changing of the year? No, you’re not. Remember you’re the grand marshal of frolic and fun in your family; they love you for being the jester.
Rheuma? Tinmaba? Saan mausar diyay seksi a kawes? Panaglammin ti ima ken saka? Yaiks! Those are tears of joy!
Remember, we are not alone. Even dear ol’ God, St. Peter and the rest of the company in heaven, too often cry “ouch,” not from headache but because of rheumatism or gout pestering them as a result of our too many sins.
Saan mausar diyay seksi a kawes mo? Tsk-tsk, you don’t need fancy clothes to look cute.
Panaglammin ti ima ken saka? Cold? Come, come, let you build a fire for that. Thou art not such a fool like this daily laborer as to laugh without a fire.
Let build a fire and welcome everybody – in the old fashioned way – including 2019.
Marshal your ranks, the old and the young. Lolos, Lolas, mothers, fathers, cousins – the whole lot!
Pile on the wood and let your New Year bonfire go cackling, the embers, laughing. Now, there! Is it you the cold rheumatic, old cynic that sets such lively spirits in motion? No, my dear reader.
Bring out the “handa” and the wine. Eat and burp. Drink little and be not a fool!
And op kors, naman, before we eat, we pray. This is how you pray:
“Dear sidaen ken dad-duma pay a makan; sapay koma ta bassit laeng ti makkan ko ittata a New Year ta mausar konto diyay seksi nga badok. Daytoy agluluwalo, daytoy ag-ayayat a dakkel unay nga bilbil ko.
Bring out the fiddle, crack your larynx box and sing, “God rest you merry gentlemen. . .” for glad hearts are waiting to hear your lousy singing and terrifying voice.
Touch the Benguet pine-studded hills and mountains with your singing –uray awan labintador ken pagan-anom aya ngamin ti paputok – and spread the mantle in the valleys for the jingling bells are impatient to ring forth the joy of the coming Year 2019.
Let children enjoy the New Year’s coming, until tired from merrymaking, the fire’s warmth and burping after sating themselves, say, “Mommy/Daddy, makatur-turog nak kon, Good night and Happy New year!”
Invite even the most miser in your barangay; let him join in the fun. Let you see if the Scrooge’s (emot) heart and purse won’t open and spill its contents.
At the strike of 12 O’clock on the night of December 30, one wishes the word “emot” is stricken off the records and replaced instead with the words, “Happy New Year, kabit, este, BAKET.”
Or, if you like, wala ng handa-handa, just like your pren Ah Kong says:
Ah Kong sabi ngayon New Yel, ikaw palagi ngiti pala pasok swelte. Tapos ikaw utot lakas pala labas malas.
Wag suot baro na polkadots, dahil simbulo yan balya; ikaw suot rectangle kasi sinyales yan ng tseke at wak ka tatalon pala hindi bouncing check.
Pala hini malas New Yel natin, wak handa bilog prutas, gaya apple at iba pa; wak din handa gaya ice cream para hindi tunaw swelte.
Higit sa lahat, wak handa apat paa tulad mamoy, maka, o kambing, kasi baka sila karipas takbo malayo swelte.
Wak kumain isda, alimango at iba pa laman dagat kasi baka malunod swelte.
Wak handa may pakpak gaya manok, pato, pabo, turkey kasi baka lipad swelte.
Wak ikaw imbita bahay singkit, pala di liit kita negosyo!
Ikaw handa pinya, dami mata, dami kita!
Pala sigulado pasok swelte sa dalating na 2019, wak na tayo handa PALA TIPID!
And maybe for many of us who contemplate having New year resolutions, your brainless, ol’ Ah who is one creature known to do no harm to anyone except himself, suggests resolution on running while studying the bible.
You will go running whenever you have time. Only remember, in your bible study, it says in Proverb 28:1 says, “The wicked run when no one is chasing them.”
Ah also firmly believes that nu kanayon marabian ni babae nga asawa nga awan gapu na ta saan met agtrabaho ti rabii, wenno adda napanana nga importante, ay ket talaga nga mesteryo dayta.
Ngem nu ni lalaki nga asawa ti mararabian nga agawid, one hundred and one percent, ay, one thousand percent, nagapu isuna iti Bible study. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL AND SUNDRY!
