A Spanish New Year

     Happy New Year everyone! first I need to say how sorry I am for being gone for so long. I had been so busy that I'm finally getting time to make another post. I want to talk about celebrating New Years in Spain and how different it is from how we celebrate it in the U.S. Sure there are similarities like staying up until midnight on New Years Eve, but they also do something a little extra. They eat grapes!

                                   Twelve Grapes

                         

     The twelve grapes of luck or las doce uvas de la suerte as they are called in Spanish is a tradition where you eat one grape during the last twelve seconds of the countdown or clock strike to New Years Day. This tradition goes back to the year 1895. It not only represents good luck, but it was also used to ward off all kinds of evil (spirits, black magic, toxic people, black luck etc). It has become a normal tradition every New Years Eve. This practice is so wide spread that people gather in big locations across the country with grapes in hand waiting for the count down.

     You an also see people on the news waiting to eat their grapes. The biggest place people like to gather is in Puerta Del Sol, Madrid. However, people gather in other parts of Spain, but this is the most popular spot. If you manage to eat all of the grapes before the New Year this means that you will have a good luck the entire new year.
   
      Many Spaniards also wear red underwear as a good luck charm during this time. I had trouble understanding this at first, but I learned fast. Unfortunately I was not wearing red underwear this year, but I won't forget next year!   So how do you celebrate New Years?

Hasta Luego!