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New Year is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in the Philippines!🎆

New Year's Eve (Bisperas ng Bagong Taon) is a special non-working holiday, and Filipinos usually celebrate in the company of family or close friends.👨‍👨‍👧‍👦

On the 31st of December, we start the day early preparing the food🍲. We have a lot of food that we cook for New Year's Eve.
So usually the parents go to supermarket, or wet markets to do some shopping 🛒 for the food. One of our traditions as well, is we have to have 12 round fruits 🍈🍒🍊on the table, 12 symbolizes the 12 months of the year, and round fruits is believed to bring prosperity, good health, and fortune on the coming year.

The kids are usually responsible for cleaning the house, and decorating for the party🎉.
New Year is a major holiday for Filipinos, so we try to make the most out of it. We play loud music🎶, set up the karaoke 🎤 at our house, light up firecrackers and fireworks 🎆, believing it will scare evil spirits away.

The following are common Filipino New Year traditions:
Making loud noise to drive away evil spirits – we play loud music, do karaoke, also car horn and torotot 🎺 (hornpipe), as well as frying pans , pots, and tin cans.
Media Noche – It’s a midnight meal on New Year’s Eve to welcome the New Year.
Filling your pockets with coins – Filling pockets with coins, or putting coins in tin cans and shaking them when the clock strikes 12 🕛 is believed to bring good fortune.
Wearing polka dots – Wearing clothes 👗 with polka dots print is common during New Year’s Eve to attract money 💰 and fortune.
Opening doors and windows 🏘️ , turning on all the lights – this is believed for good fortune and positive vibes.
Eat pancit – Pancit, spaghetti, and other long noodles 🍝 symbolizes good health and long life.
Jump high at midnight – Commonly applicable to children, old folks believe that children should jump as high as they can when the clock strikes 12 helps them grow taller.

As midnight approaches, everyone gets excited, we play the music louder, we turn on the TV to watch the countdown, and as we hit the new year we blow our hornpipes 🎺, jump, and go outside to watch fireworks 🎆 that are basically everywhere!

Spending New Year in the Philippines is truly amazing, and a memorable experience with family and friends!❤️