The New Year is celebrated all over the world, across various cultures and religious beliefs, as a fresh slate. People all around the globe believe that there’s something of a reset when the clock strikes midnight on the 1st of January. Each of these cultures has traditions of their own. There might be some overlap in cultural practice thanks to either geographic proximity or a shared influence.
If you’re dating a Colombian woman, then you’re going to need to get familiar with the New Year’s customs and traditions of Colombia, because your date might want to observe a few of these customs and traditions.
If you actually take a trip to Colombia in addition to dating a woman from there, then you’re really going to need to get somewhat familiar with those customs and traditions because they’re going to be observed by the people around you.
But what are those customs and traditions? What do those customs and traditions mean? And how exactly are you supposed to observe them? And what do you need to do in order to observe them properly?
And you’re going to want to observe properly, not just because you want to impress your girl and her family, but also because you want to have the effects that these customs and traditions are supposed to bring about.
How many months are there in a year? Well, according to the Julian calendar used widely all around the world, the answer is 12. 12 months and in Colombia, the number 12 is pretty important when it comes to a certain tradition on New Year’s Day.
When the clock strikes twelve, people are supposed to eat 12 grapes, one each time the clock chimes. To eat them as fast as possible, go with seedless grapes because the last thing you want is to start your New Year with choking. That’s not going to get you very far romantically in Cartagena, Colombia or anywhere else in Colombia for that matter.
Boxers? Briefs? Do you go commando or do you like tighty-whiteys? You may not put too much thought into your underwear. You probably one care that it’s clean and comfortable, not whether or not it’s stylish or cool. Clean and comfortable are good criteria for around 364 (365 if it’s a leap year) of the year. But on day numero uno, you’re going to have to add an extra criteria.
That criteria is color. You’re supposed to wear yellow underwear during the New Year. Because wearing yellow underwear is supposed to attract love and happiness. It may not work, but you’re going after a Colombian woman, so you’re going to want to have as many arrows in your quiver as possible.
If it’s the 31st of December and you want to guarantee a bountiful year and you’re wearing pants with pockets, then stuff those pockets with lentils. It doesn’t matter what color those lentils are, just as long as they’re in your pockets. This tradition supposedly has its roots in Europe.
If you’re in Colombia to improve your love life, then you’re probably not a stranger to international travel. Maybe you’re rather familiar with it. Maybe absconding to Colombia is your first taste of it.
But there are a lot of people in Colombia that want to travel. They may want to explore their country or they may want to see what the rest of the world has to offer. The point is that a lot of Colombian people want to travel.
And in order to encourage opportunities for travel to come up, a lot of people in Colombia take an empty suitcase and walk around their neighborhoods with it. Some people who can’t do that instead put their empty suitcases in the middle of a room and walk around it.
A lot of New Year’s traditions revolve around good omens for the coming year and this next one is no different. There aren’t a lot of people who’d turn their noses down at a financial windfall in the New Year. In fact, a lot of people would rather hope for one.
So a lot of people make it a point to have cash in their hand when the clock strikes twelve midnight on the 1st of January because apparently that’s supposed to bring about more money in the coming year.
Have you wanted to burn something down? Have you ever wanted something to go up in smoke and be gone from this world forever? But you couldn’t because the thing you wanted to burn down was an abstract concept and was thus not corporeal so fire wouldn’t have done anything to it?
Well, in Colombia, they burn down a representation of an abstract concept, that abstract concept being the previous year. They take an effigy of the previous year, stuff it with fireworks and then set off those fireworks so as to watch the old year go up in smoke and hope for a fresh start in the next one.
Have you ever done hokey-pokey? You put one foot in and one foot out and then you shake it all about? You probably know what it is but it’s likely you haven’t done it since you were a small child unless there was a small child in your life that needed help grasping the concept.
Well, if you’re no longer familiar with the dance, then you’re going to need to relearn one particular step when in Colombia for the New Year. Because in Colombia, it’s thought to be a good omen if the first step you take in the New Year is done with your right foot.
The New Year often goes hand in hand with a fresh start. And a fresh start is a blank slate. It can be whatever you want it to be. In Colombia, they start manifesting the things they want before the clock even strikes midnight.
