New Year’s Traditions

Happy New Year, Smarties! I hope you all enjoyed the festivities. We in the Dunbar household laid low but did celebrate with some fun activities with the kids and neighbors. The boys are really interested this year in traditions and the meaning of what the holidays represent. Although, the one thing they seem most excited about New Year’s is that January precedes February, which is Owen and Walker’s birthday month (their BFF’s). That shows you what an impression Charlotte Junior Gym or those Plym boys can make after a whole year (they hosted their 3rd birthday party at Charlotte Jr. Gym last year and my boys have been hooked ever since!)!!!

Okay, now back to traditions. My family usually did the usual pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. We had to do black-eyed peas per my hubby’s request. Although, I have NO objection to doing this since I am convinced this is how we won our Harris Teeter all-inclusive cruise last year!!! Which, by the way rocked, so don’t hang up if they call. It’s not a scam. It was definitely not my pork and sauerkraut this year since that got blasted when our stove caught on fire New Year’s day. Although, it did get me a new stove 🙂

I read an article last year about the people of Spain eating twelve grapes at midnight. One for each month of the year, and it will bring good luck of course. So this is what we did this year, except at 8 instead of midnight. The grapes are placed on a wooden skewer and then one is eaten at every chime of the clock. This may seem a little much for our little guys but it was a really fun activity for us. They were excited about it, but tried to negotiate down to 8 grapes. Of course this was a supervised event so that the skewer wasn’t used as a weapon, such an obvious regression with boys in a household!

The boys really like “toasting.” We also toasted with glasses of sparkling apple juice or apple cider (see video below). We are not brave enough to use real flutes so we used a more durable glass. This is such a fun age to start traditions.

If you need some inspiration, then here are a few other suggestions I researched from around the world. I think it’s always fun to see what is going on in other cultures as well, so here you go:

-The Danish, throw old dishes they have saved all year at the doorstep of friends. Consider yourself lucky if you have found this mess at your doorstep the next morning. A big heap of dishes signifies you have many friends. Hmmmm….now this sounds like fun. Some of you better watch out next year!

-Peru and Portugal do the same as the Spaniards but Peru eats a 13th grape for better luck. Must be trying to one-up them!

-Norwegians make rice pudding and place an almond in the dish and whoever gets the lucky almond has guaranteed wealth for the next year.

It’s kind of funny that I never knew the real meaning behind the kiss at midnight that we Americans have embraced. It is to represent the old costume balls in which all would wear masks that represented evil spirits from the previous year. The kiss at midnight represents purification into the new year. Interesting, huh?

Let us know what you did as a family so we can remember for next year! Here’s to wishing you the best in 2010!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y-H8mDxQF8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]