New Years Superstition

 I just came back from my farm which is 2 hrs away from Bogota, some nice hot, sunny weather where my family and I spent our New Years eve. We are not the crazy party type, like many other colombian families, we just like to sip our drinks, eat our dinner, wait til 12 and then go to bed. Is not as boring as it sounds, in between the dinner and the waiting til twelve we all gather the things that will make our new year as positive and great as it can be, a kind of superstitious ritual. I am not at all superstitious but we have been doing this stupid crap since I remember and a new years eve without it would just not be a new years eve. 

So here goes the ritual...

It starts with the old man from the first picture, Jorge Baron a guy that for 40 years has been making concerts and events in small towns of Colombia. We actually don't pay much attention to him during the evening, we leave the TV on mute and turn it on just to scream the countdown with him.

Yellow underwear for  happiness

Grapes, twelve, eat one with each stroke of midnight and make a wish for the next year.

 Lentils in the pockets, they will bring prosperity

Tennis shoes to run around the house, and for future fast actions and thinking 

Luggage to run around the exterior of the house to bring many travels

Light up an Año Viejo. The año viejo is a 'person' that simbolizes the year that passed. You make it out of old clothing, news paper and notes of the things you want to leave behind and then burn it at the stroke of midnight.

Of course it is physically impossible to do all at the same time. What we do is run around the house with our luggage gulping down grapes at a slower pace, and then run around a second time, when we have eaten our grapes, at a faster pace, and finish the round at the Año Viejo to salute the year that has passed. We look quite ridiculous as we do it but it is such fun and we enjoy it even more as we grow old.