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Published: January 1st 2017
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Doce Uvas
12 grapes to bring in the New Year, and one for a leap second. Spain/Hispanoamerica. New Year's is one of those occasions celebrated pretty unanimously around the world, though, as I've discovered, in many different ways.
As a Brit, I have spent most of my New Years' Eves with family or getting drunk, or getting drunk with family. We play games, watch Big Ben on the TV, enjoy some fireworks and then sleep. It's my sister's birthday on the 1
st January, so we usually have a meal and go to the zoo (my sister likes giraffes + there is a zoo = we go to the zoo). So I tried to find some celebrations from around the world that would fit into my usual celebrations.
The traditions (both ancient and modern) are fairly diverse. I feel I have lost out on the traditional Peruvian fist fight with my enemy as I have no enemies, something I hope to remedy by next New Year's. Honestly, how can I call myself a well-rounded human being without having at least one nemesis I can challenge to a fight before we start the New Year with a clean slate.
I'm currently staying with my parents and don't know my neighbours well enough to smash crockery on their
Columbian Suitcase
My miniature version of the Columbian tradition. Baby steps, next year I'll do the run! doorstep as the Danes would do... I mean, I could.... but I'm not sure how my mum would feel about me destroying a set of her dishes. Maybe she would welcome the opportunity to buy a new set.
I refuse to drop ice-cream on the floor. Anyone who destroys such blessed food should be shunned. Switzerland, I shun you.
I will be checking in with my Finnish friends to see if any of them poured molten tin into a bucket of water to see their futures, or if my Romanian friends tossed their coins into rivers. I don't know any Bolivians, and the family members I have known who have died have been cremated, but I would be interested to know if anyone goes to visit their family's graves to bring in the New Year.
I am just not quite crazy enough to jump into an icy lake or river, and so the Siberian tradition of jumping into the freezing water with a bit of Christmas tree does not sound appealing. Polar Bear Swim Day does not involve any actual polar bears and so disappoints me.
So I started small. At midnight I succeeded in
doce uvas, uvas de la suerte (12 lucky grapes), a tradition that began in Spain and is now practiced in hispanoamerica. As the bell rings in the new year, you eat the 12 grapes and in doing so bring luck for the new year and wards away witches and evil. I'm not sure if the bells ring faster in Spain, but keeping up with Big Ben was fairly easy. I added a 13
th grape for the leap second (I was surprised to find that there have been 27 leap seconds since 1972).
For
New Year's Day I celebrated with a Colombian and a Mexican tradition. The Colombian tradition involves carrying round a suitcase to ensure good travel in the coming year. I've read various articles online about different ways this can be achieved. Some say to run round the block carrying the suitcase, others say to carry it around for the day. I picked the less tiring of the two and carried one around with me. It was admittedly a paper suitcase not much bigger than a pack of cards (being that I only decided to do this a day or two ago, I haven't really prepared anything yet. I did however decorate my suitcase and fill it with useful miniatures of the things I usually take travelling.
The Mexican tradition, which again seems to be something done all across the Americas, is to wear specific coloured underwear to encourage something for the year to come. I chose red, for love of course, but will not be posting a picture here. You'll just have to open your incognito window to search for these things like everybody else.
So, that's it. Day one of 365 done. 3 traditions for 1 celebration.
Tomorrow – Kakizame!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
A great travel story
Great blog Heather, I love the idea of celebrating world holiday traditions. One day you may want to try the Siberian tradition. In 1989, I did the polar freeze into the Ross Sea while working in Antarctica.... a once in a lifetime experience. Thanks for not dropping the ice cream.