The end of the year is a time of reflection, review and to close cycles or open new ones, therefore, it is common to have rituals that seek to call love, luck, abundance, travel or whatever is expected of the following year, which in these days also adds health to desires. And so that none of those things fail in 2023, here are the rituals that should not be missing on the last day of 2022.
1. Sweeping the house: for a long time, this custom has the objective of removing the “bad vibes” or negative energy of the year that is ending, especially if it brought difficult events, such as fights, crises or breakups.
2. Eating 12 grapes with the 12 strokes of midnight: it is a tradition to have 12 wishes ready for the 12 months of the coming year and list them with the last seconds of the old year eating a grape, which symbolizes luck and prosperity. This custom came to Latin America from Spain, according to a copy of the French tradition in which people ate grapes and drank sparkling wine. There is also a theory that it started due to a surplus harvest of white grapes in Alicante that they related to “good luck” and therefore adopted as a tradition.
3. Eating lentils: With a similar meaning to grapes, eating lentils on New Year’s Eve is said to call for money and abundance, although a variation on this tradition is to just bring raw lentils in your pockets when the year ends.
4. Go around the block with a suitcase: today, travel is a long-awaited desire, the return to tourist destinations is not only needed by those who travel, but also by those who make a living from tourism. Tradition dictates that you must go around the block at midnight carrying a suitcase.
5. Candles: a ritual to attract light, abundance and prosperity to the home and to all those who live there consists of lighting 12 candles and entrusting oneself to the divinity. When they strike 12, only one candle should be left on and light a new one every first day of the month for the rest of the year.
6. Little lambs: hanging little lambs on the door of the house, or having them under the pillow at the end of the year is said to bring money and abundance.
7. Launching a red/gold/white garment (or all three): this tradition marks the fresh start of a new cycle in which one seeks to call, depending on the color, love, abundance or peace. The garment must be new so as not to drag anything from past cycles.
8. Glass with water: the tradition of filling a glass with water and throwing it into the street at the stroke of midnight is used to end tears, bad experiences or energy that have been experienced in the year that is ending.
9. Coins: passing 12 coins from hand to hand at the stroke of midnight with whom you share dinner, is a ritual to call money, friendship and abundance.
10. Wear red or yellow: although in Latin America this tradition is seasoned by pointing out that it should be underwear, wearing these colors seeks to attract love or money in the coming year. It is one of the most common rituals, which this year proposes that it be the face mask that carries a characteristic color.
