Tonight, Cebu and the rest of the nation’s skies will once again light up and reverberate with loud bangs of firecrackers in a tradition that goes back to times long forgotten. Doubtless some Cebuanos would end up in hospitals to have some of their limbs treated from the excesses of revelry. It is as if the not-so-pleasant consequences of this traditional New Year’s greeting are part and parcel of the practice.

Such was the case in 1992, when Fagina (now Pahina), then a section of the former town of San Nicholas, was almost burned to the ground, thanks to firecrackers exploded by both young and old in a neighborhood full of nipa huts. The incident even prompted the Cebuano weekly Bag-ong Kusog to denounce the failure of the government to implement local ordinances against the indiscriminate use of firecrackers.

Cebu’s Mayor Regino Mercado did not forget the episode and a few weeks prior to the New Year of 1930, he issued a special order specifying places where the shooting of firecrackers may be permitted - mostly in the public plazas of the time. Some 170 persons defied the order and were promptly packed like sardines in the local jail for an overnight stay and a personal lecture by the mayor on public order and safety prior to their release the day after.

-Ybarra