Do not be alarmed if your friends insist on wearing yellow underwear, sweeping dirt out the front door, walking around the block with their suitcases and then popping exactly 12 grapes in their mouths on the stroke of midnight.
They are just assuring good fortune in the new year. According to Mexican tradition, if you wear red underwear as you ring in the new year you will find love. Yellow underwear brings financial security. Sweeping dirt out the front door gets rid of bad luck, and carrying your suitcases around the block will assure many trips in the coming year. Finally, when the clock strikes midnight, you eat a grape for every chime and make a wish each time.
Celebrating the start of a new year goes back to the earliest civilizations, and all over the world different cultures have unique ways of making the New Year better than the last. New Year’s celebrations began in ancient Babylon around 4,000 years ago.
Cultures that do not celebrate the new year on January 1 have their own special traditions as well. The Chinese New Year, Yuan Tin, is celebrated with fireworks, parades and the Festival of Lanterns between January 17 and February 19. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, marks the birth of creation, a day of memorial that not only recalls personal acts but events occurring since the beginning of time. At home, special prayers are pronounced over an apple dipped in honey.