IT IS THE end of another year, and we enter yet another not certain what fate brings.

Life brings us so much each and every year that we, most of the time, don’t remember them all. We tend to keep in mind the good things that have come and, more often than not, try to put the negatives behind and forget about them altogether.

When the clock strikes 12 midnight to signal the coming of 2016, we Filipinos — being the superstitious race that we are — participate in activities we claim were handed down by our ancestors.

These activities include filling your wallets with a wad of cash to make sure that our wallets will be filled with such for the coming year; we jump at the gong of midnight for us to grow a few inches; some don’t even take a bath for the next 24 hours just to attract good fortune for the coming year.

We refrain from serving chicken for media noche so that we won’t have to be “isang kahig, isang tuka” for the coming year; we eat sticky stuff so that the good fortune that comes will stick to us for the whole year; and yes, we pray that the Good Lord blesses us more.

We Filipinos are very superstitious in almost everything we do. That’s fine. Like our elders always say: “Wala naman mawawala sa atin kung susunod tayo.”

In the case of not taking a bath for the next 24 hours — just after cooking food for your family and after the grime as a result of the fireworks sticks to our bodies – just make sure that you don’t come to like not taking a bath, because you might smell for the next 12 months.

Pray. That’s the most important thing.

In any case, wherever you are in the world, please allow this corner to greet each and every Filipino celebrating the coming of the new year in a foreign land all the best.

It’s not the celebrated PBA basketball player who dons the Gilas uniform, it is not even the President of our proud country, nor our over-rated lawmakers and sweet-talking presidential candidates who are heroes of our beloved Philippines.

It is you, our dear OFWs, who are the real heroes of this land.

In this corner’s own little way, have a Happy New Year!

*****

After the traditional Filipino revelry in welcoming the New Year dies down just before morning of January 1 comes in a few hours, the Holiday Season in the Philippines officially comes to an end.

And because the second and third days of the New Year falls on a weekend, this country’s work force can take it a bit easy, not needing to return to work immediately the following day — for most, anyway — with regular working days to start on Monday, Jan. 4.

That day will also mark the resumption of the PBA Philippine Cup, meaning everyone running the league, the players belonging to the remaining teams in the Final Four, and the covering media will be back to work.

Not so for two seasoned referees, who missed two crucial calls in the dying seconds of the GlobalPort-Barangay Ginebra KO match last Sunday that resulted in their suspensions for the rest of the conference.

Romel Gruta and Edward Aquino, two of the more reliable game officials in the league’s roster of referees, were suspended for the rest of the tournament — obviously without pay — by commissioner Chito Narvasa, the axe falling just a few days after Christmas.

In a statement by the PBA published in its official website, Narvasa said that Gruta was suspended for failing to call a ball-hogging violation on GlobalPort point guard Stanley Pringle.

Aquino was canned for failing to call a backing violation on Pringle, who stepped on the halfcourt line while trying to wriggle out of a Ginebra double-team of Greg Slaughter and Solomon Mercado.

In the current season and in the year that ended, those non-calls were the biggest officiating errors in the league, amplified to their fullest because it came during a very crucial game against the very popular Barangay Ginebra squad.

Our referees have the most thankless jobs in the world, and there’s no need to elaborate.

Gruta and Aquino missed those calls, and should be punished, sure, but for the rest of the conference?

Narvasa certainly threw the book at them in his very first celebrated officiating case. He has his reasons, we are sure.

The commissioner has certainly sent his message across. Loud and clear for the other game officials to hear.

*****

After that game, when the near-capacity crowd finally made its way out of the Mall of Asia Arena, a large pro-Ginebra throng gathered at the players’ entrance/exit gate and, from where I was standing, I thought that they would be there to offer their sympathies to the Gin Kings for having bowed out of the tournament.

Doug Kramer of GlobalPort, who regularly appears in commercials with his family for having a wholesome personality, had the bad luck of being the first player to step out of the coliseum and make his way back to his car.

Kramer, dressed in a sleeveless shirt and shorts, drew the full brunt of the Ginebra faithful, who cursed him to high heavens and jeered him even while his compact vehicle zoomed out of view.

The next GlobalPort players also suffered the same fate and had to just ignore the fans.

Joe Devance, meanwhile, made his way out of the coliseum and drew a raucous applause complete with chants of “De-Vance, De-Vance, De-Vance.”

The Fil-American forward gamely went to the fans for selfies and autographs and looked like he was genuinely having a great time despite coming off a very frustrating loss.

Ginebra’s other players, were also embraced like idols when they came out.

The Gin Kings may have suffered a painful defeat but went home feeling like they had just won a championship.