As we prepare to receive the New Year, and after reading Maribel’s posting, I thought it would be interesting to focus on the New Year celebrations. In the Hispanic community, many attend mass at midnight and make this a time to give thanks. For others, like my family, this is a time to bring the family together, have dinner and welcome the New Year together. Part of our family tradition, which comes from Spain, is eating 12 grapes and picking up twelve coins as the clock strikes at midnight. The coins you receive are supposed to be saved throughout the year but you eat the grapes as the twelve bells ring. The coins symbolize money and the grapes food, and doing this means you will have food and money the 12 months of the year. In doing research for this posting, I found a great article in El Universal that talks about traditions and in some cases, superstitions around the celebration. Some of the quirkiest we’ve heard involve running around the home with your luggage if you want to travel next year, or throwing dirty water out the window. Here’s the article in Spanish: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estilos/51460.html.
So in the next few days I’ll be practicing my multitasking skills, based on the insight from El Universal. The goal: to stand up and sit down, while eating grapes and pick up the coins while also saying out loud that I’ll be happy this year, while throwing money (not the twelve coins I’m supposed to save or the money in my shoes) to the ceiling…all this as the twelve bells ring. So how do you welcome the New Year?
De parte de FH Hispania, les deseamos un muy prospero año, con mucho amor, alegría y salud.
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