Shortly before midnight on Dec. 31, 2022, as I reached for a dozen grapes on the dining table to start the countdown to the new year, someone commented “pa-uso ka na naman.” I didn’t comment on
the grapes being set in the middle of Mandarin oranges and other round fruits more appropriate for Chinese New Year. I explained that the countdown to the new year in the Puerta del Sol, the navel of Madrid, is marked by the chimes of a clock that strikes 12 times to mark the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one. People gathered in Sol come with 12 grapes in hand to eat, one by one, for each chime of the clock.
As I reminisced on new years past, I wondered why we celebrate at midnight on Dec. 31 when we should actually be up at dawn to greet the first sunrise of the year. I did just that and took photos of the first daybreak of 2023 from the windows in my study that face east. I remain hopeful that 2023 will be kinder than 2022, but later in the day, I was one of hundreds of airline passengers inconvenienced by the technical glitch in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
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