New Year’s Eve means only one thing: welcome 2019. This year we will welcome the New Year in Madrid and it will be for sure an amazing end/beginning. As you have guessed, this post will be about some of the best Spanish New Year’s Eve traditions.
This is actually the last post of the year! The past year has been a long journey. We have changed style several times, but we worked hard to ameliorate our blog and to provide you with useful information about Madrid, Spain and the Spanish language. Have you enjoyed it? Were they useful? Our mission is to make you fall in love with this beautiful country and this city. Therefore, we will keep writing our posts and we hope to be part of your weekly readings in 2019! Our New Year’s resolutions? It is a secret… at least until January ahahah.
But let’s go back to the Spanish New Year’s Eve traditions. Imagine to be back from Christmas holidays and to be in your cosy-shared flat with your flatmates. Everyone has his/her own traditions and everyone, or nearly everyone, is celebrating the end of the year in Madrid for the first time. This is a great chance to merge all your traditions with the Spanish one. This New Year’s Eve will turn into an unforgettable experience.
Are you ready for a Spanish Nochevieja? We can definitely begin to list all the things we have to do in order to celebrate a perfect Spanish New Year’s Eve.
Red Underwear
First, let’s talk about clothes. Underwear has never been so important, especially if you are looking for a partner. Traditionally, during Christmas Eve, you should wear red underwear. Why? Well, to fall in love in 2019. Should we believe it? Well, better than no chance. Furthermore, there is always a good reason to go shopping…
Outdoor VS Indoor
The location is important and not just to look for a shared flat ahahah. We could not end 2018 without writing this sentence once more! Getting serious, where Spanish people celebrate New Year’s Eve? They celebrate both at home, for dinner, and in squares, where they usually wait for Midnight. The citizens of Madrid meet in Puerta de Sol, and, as you may guess, every city has its own meeting point.
Drink Cava
Let’s talk an important part of the New Year’s Eve, the toast. To bring wealth in the New Year, Spanish people drop something made of gold (usually a ring) into a glass of Cava. They do this before Midnight and this is interesting because many other traditions want the toast after Midnight.
12 Lucky Grapes
12! 11! 10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 2019!
Once upon a time, a Spanish started a tradition: eat 12 grapes in the last minute of the year, one grape per each month. Since that moment, it is believed that eating the grapes brings good luck for the following 12 months. Amongst all the interesting traditions, this is one of our favourite and we will surely do it in front of the clock of Puerta del Sol. Do you think to be able to eat all those grapes in 1 minute only?
Right Foot
Let’s end the list with the right foot! And 2019, too. Literally ahahah. There is a huge amount of good luck rituals this night and we will surely forget one or maybe more. Back to our footstep, you have to begin 2019 with the right foot, please remember it. We guess that we are ready for our traditional New Year’s Eve, right?
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What do you think about your 2018? Are you ready for 2019? We are so excited to begin a new year with all of you and we are so glad we have spent with you the last months. Our international team is actually ready to celebrate together a traditional and original Spanish New Year’s Eve: we have bought grapes, we are wearing red underwear, cava is in the fridge and lentils are cooking… Even though our shared flat is super cosy and it is cold outside, we have decided to enjoy this night with all the other Spanish people: we are going in the Puerta del Sol all together!
See you in 2019!
helpMadrid team wishes you a Happy New Year!