Good Morning POU! Here are a few New Year’s traditions and superstitions from around the world.
Wear red underwear, find love
In Mexico and other Latin American countries, red, green and gold (or yellow) underwear are abundant at clothing stores right before New Year’s Eve.
People wear red underwear to find love, green or yellow and gold for wealth and white for peace in the new year.
Pack your suitcase, travel more
And in Colombia and other Spanish-speaking countries, people will grab their suitcases and carry them around all day or walk around the block with them at midnight to travel more in the new year.
Eat 12 grapes at midnight
Have 12 grapes ready, make a wish for each one, which represents every month of the year. In Spain, people eat them at the stroke of midnight.
Sweep away negativity
Make sure your house is fresh and clean before midnight. In many Latin American countries, cleaning and getting rid of the year’s trash is a way of preventing negativity from lingering into the new year.
Scare away the bad, burn a newspaper-stuffed scarecrow
In Ecuador, as soon as the clock strikes midnight, families will head outside to burn a newspaper-stuffed scarecrow. It represents anything bad that happened in the year, and burning it is meant to scare away any negativity in the new year.