Colombian New Year's Traditions

When the new year comes closer everybody is thinking about their wishes and goals for the coming year. While most can just hope for the best, Colombians have some little tricks and traditions to help themselves out and make sure the next year will be a blast. In this blog post, we will let you in on these funny (and admittedly weird) New Year's rituals so you can take it into your own hands to make this year a good one. 

Take your luggage for a stroll

First things first - as we are all passionate travelers here, this might be the most useful and most important tradition. If you are hoping to travel a lot in the coming year, it is time to grab your luggage and take it for a run around the blog when the clock strikes midnight on the 31st of December (If you don’t run it doesn’t count). Enjoy the sight of the fireworks and make sure your year will be full of unique travel experiences. When Colombians see someone rushing by with their luggage, they will often wish them good luck with their travel plans. A little extra luck never hurt anybody!

Lentils in your pocket

Traveling is usually a lot more fun if you have a little bit of budget to spend on the route. This is where lentils come in handy. A funny Colombian New Year’s tradition is to put lentils in the pocket of your jeans during the last day of the year. This is supposed to guarantee that you will have an abundance of cash in the coming year. 

Money in your hands

If you don’t trust the lentils or want to make extra sure that your travel budget is secured, you can hold some cash in your hand when the new year arrives. This is another tradition that is supposed to ensure a steady flow of cash into your pockets in the coming 12 months. Some say the most effective is a 50,000 banknote....we are talking about pesos here of course.

Grapes are great

If your wishes for the next year are a little more specific than traveling or having money, this is a good one for you. Colombian tradition says that if you eat 12 grapes at the turn of the year, each of these grapes will grant you a wish that will come true in the next year. Some people claim that you have to eat one grape at each strike of the clock at midnight. However, eating 12 grapes in 12 seconds is quite the challenge and choking on them is probably not the best way to start the new year. By the way, drinking the grapes in the form of wine doesn’t count (you know you were thinking about this too ;)).

What color is your underwear?

This one gets a little personal but is one of the most common ones in Colombia. If you walk around the streets before New Year's Eve, you will see a lot of stores selling bright yellow underwear. Opting for this flashing color underneath your clothing on the last night of the year is supposed to bring you money for the one to come. Red underwear is also quite common, this is for the ones of you who are looking for love in the next year.

Get off on the right foot with the new year

Had some tough decisions in the last year? Get some help with this by stepping into the new year with the right foot. Taking your first step like this is a Colombian New Year’s tradition that is supposed to support you in making the right decisions. 

Burn the past

Image source: https://danielsalazar35.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/carr7.jpg


This one is quite useful - and a lot of fun. Colombians have a tradition where they burn a life-size puppet of a character called “año viejo” which literally means “old year”. This puppet is usually filled with fireworks and symbolizes all the things you want to leave in the past year. If you want to be on the safe site tough, you can follow the example of some Colombians who opt for a smaller puppet filled with eucalyptus. There’s a little less risk of explosion and its just as effective to leave behind these bad habits and decisions.

One thing is for sure with all these Colombian New Year’s traditions - your night won’t be boring. And who knows, they might bring you some luck, love, money or good decisions for the next year. From the whole team here at IMPULSE, we wish you a Happy New Year!

P.S.: No New Year's Party would be complete without the right music. Here are the Top Colombian Songs to use as soundtrack for your New Year’s Eve celebration:

1. Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva – Billo’s Caracas Boys
2. Cantares de Navidad – Billo’s Caracas Boys
3. Faltan 5 pa’ las 12 – Nestor Zavarce
4. La Víspera de Año Nuevo – Guillermo Buitrago
5. Yo no olvido el año viejo – Tony Camargo