Goodbye, 2013; welcome, 2014!

Midnight Wednesday this week, we bade a memorable and eventful old year 2013 goodbye, as we welcomed the coming of the anticipated new year 2014.

On Christmas Day this year, towards the end of a year troubled by human strife and natural disasters, Pope Francis, in his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) message, said he was joining all those hoping “for a better world.” In armed conflicts in Syria, Palestine and Israel, South Sudan, Nigeria, Congo and Somalia. And in natural disasters, the Philippines.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said that despite the disasters that rocked the country this year, the faithful must still “Aspire to be holy, despite challenges and pain, and go make a difference.” That we must not lose hope, that “We can say ‘Rise and walk’ because we celebrate the fact that God is with us.” His message was for the New Year’s celebration to usher in 2014, declared as the “Year of the Laity” by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Then Archbishop Socrates Villegas, CBCP president, in his New Year’s message, called on the faithful to lead a life of conversion and abandon “old and evil ways” as they welcomed 2014 filled with faith and hope. And to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, on her Feast on New Year’s Day.

Two other feast days noted in the last days of December were that of the Holy Innocents on Saturday Dec. 28th, last week, and of the Holy Family on Dec. 29th last Sunday.

Historically and culturally, the Rizal Memorial Statue at Rizal Park in Manila has been declared a national cultural treasure by the National Museum of the Philippines last Monday, Dec. 30, 2013, exactly a hundred years since it was unveiled in 1913 during the then 17th death anniversary of Rizal. The statue was a work of Swiss sculptor Richard Kissling. The National Museum has declared that the hero’s monument has become a “preeminent national, political, historical and cultural symbol, evoking the virtues, patriotism, sacrifice, death and legacy of Rizal.”

In Cebu City, Mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labela led in the floral offering that day at the statue of Dr. Jose Rizal at the City grounds. During the ceremony, Mayor Rama reminded Cebuanos “to live out the values of patriotism, nationalism and heroism of Dr. Jose Rizal.”

Then on New Year’s Eve, the world welcomed Year 2014, each state and culture welcoming it in their own ways. Predominating it all was loud celebration and colorful fireworks. In Cebu and other areas in the country the country, plagued by an unusual rash of fires this year out of the usual Fire Prevention Month of March, we had an interesting revival of the native “torotot” or horns.

I remember in early postwar years my late father hanging an empty kerosene can from one of the trees in our backyard and happily banging away on it with a piece of firewood at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. And the neighbors happily beating empty hollowed out dried bamboo canes. More memories.

On the modern cultural scene, we learn that Ryan Cayabyab has been conferred with the Vatican’s Papal Award Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice last December at a Pontifical Mass officiated by Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

On the other hand, among some of the notable figures that passed away last year was Nelson Mandela, apartheid icon, Nobel laureate and former South African president, at the age of 95 last Dec. 5th. While three actor-actress notables were Paul Walker of “The Fast and the Furious” aged 40, in a car crash last November 3rd; Peter O’Toole, the Irish actor at age 81 on Dec. 4th; and Joan Fontaine, British Oscar-winning actress at the age of 96 last Dec. 16th.

And then, shortly before year’s end, in mid-afternoon last Dec. 30th, a 4.3 magnitude aftershock hit Cebu and Bohol, the Cebu Daily News editorial the next day “reminding us again of our vulnerability to the elements and Nature’s power.” So now, as the editorial continues, “There is much time to look forward to even greater challenges facing us, but we must soldier on with the conviction that every thing will work out well, with the guidance of the Almighty, as we, like masters of the Chinese horse, ride on beyond 2014.”

So until next week, then, may God continue to bless us, one and all!