Happy New Year Latin Style: Unusual South American Customs for bringing in the New Year

Teach English as a Foreign Language Abroad

When you teach English abroad you have a continual stream of opportunities to delve into and involve yourself into the local culture. It's one of the many payoffs of living and teaching English as a foreign language in another country. Take this case in point:

Question: What do a suitcase, 12 grapes, a sheaf of wheat, the color yellow, three potatoes and a stuffed dummy all have in common? Right! They each represent a custom for bringing in the New Year. But do you know these customs and how they’re celebrated?

Get That Suitcase Out

Many South Americans believe that if you carry an empty suitcase around the block on New Year’s Day you will be fortunate to travel during the course of the year. When my elderly neighbor sauntered out of her front gate in Cali, Colombia with a beat-up valise she’d dusted off for the occasion, she brushed off my queries brusquely.

“Don’t bother me now! I’m leaving!”

Minutes later, her “tour” complete, she confided her desires to “see the states” this year. According to her, a voyage this year was now, “in the bag”.

Around the middle of December you begin to notice a disproportionately large number of fruit and vegetable street vendors starting to sell grapes. Grapes are everywhere by Christmas. Green grapes, purple grapes, mixed grapes – they roll down the street and squish beneath your careless feet as you stroll market areas and shopping districts. Eating 12 grapes at or near midnight of New Year’s Eve will bring you good luck throughout the New Year. Green grapes are preferred by the majority, but any will suffice I was told by Anna Lucia who walked into the room with a bag of mixed grapes ample enough to produce a case of “vino”.

“You’re not planning to eat all those, are you?” I chided.

“No, they’re not just for me. They’re for my family too.”

I remembered that she and her husband have five children. Add in the extended family and well, enough said. Haven’t had your twelve yet? Hurry up, there’s still time.

A Bundled Sheaf of Wheat

A black youth stood on a downtown Pasto, Colombia corner hovering over a five-gallon bucket full of bundled sheaves of wheat. Each was wrapped with a brightly colored ribbon or two. Some were enhanced even further with a flower or small bouquet. People up and down the streets walked with a similar-looking sheaf held upright out in front of them like a siren in front of a fire engine. Crossing the Zocalo, or main square downtown, a young girl sitting on a park bench waved her sheaf at us like a magic wand. (pictured above)

“That’s a new one on me”, I said to my companion when she explained.

“If you hang a bundled sheaf of wheat in your home it’s very good luck.”

She continued, “It has twelve stalks of wheat in each bundle”.

“How much for one?” I asked the youth.

We quickly bargained to a lower price.

“Are you sure there’re twelve in here?” I questioned, not wanting to get short-changed.

“Oh yeah. Go ahead and count them.”

When my partner responded, “No there’re only eleven.”

He quickly snapped back, “No way! Count them again.”

We did and there were twelve. This New Year’s luck thing is serious business. The flowered sheaf stands guard now on the bookcase over my desk. Wish me luck, okay?

The Color Yellow

Not all mind you, but quite a few Latinos in Colombia and Ecuador use the color yellow for the New Year. There are a number of ways to do it. You can paint a room yellow. Place something yellow in the room. Wear a yellow item of clothing and you’ll shower yourself with fortune for the New Year. For reasons which as yet elude me, a favorite is to wear yellow underwear. (The preferred color in Mexico is red.) Both men and women have a pair or two on hand for the occasion – or so I’ve been repeatedly told. Okay, okay, I’ll fess up; I have a couple of pairs of yellow underwear myself. So call me fickle. I have red ones too. Do I wear a pair for New Year’s? I’ll never tell!

Be sure to read “How to Use Three Potatoes and a Stuffed Dummy for Bringing in the New Year” for more unusual Latin American New Year’s customs.

So again, “Happy New Year!” … now get that suitcase out!

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, prolific writer, author and public speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, "If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.

Yellow Fever: English Teachers Abroad, Know About and Protect Yourself from This Deadly Disease

If you’re teaching English as a foreign language abroad and you live in, travel to, vacation in or work in a foreign location where Yellow Fever occurs, you absolutely must protect yourself from this deadly disease.

The Symptoms
Scarlet, canary yellow and shimmering blue feathered birds flecked with iridescent green, chirp songs to greet the sunrise as you awake. But you do not notice. Thor’s hammer pounds your head in fury. Your eyes close from the pain. The smell of your breakfast sends waves of queasiness through your rumbling mid-section. The nausea increases as you rise. Your back is a slab of concrete. Again you try getting up and your muscles scream so loudly you move in the slow motion of a special effects film. Your palm burns from the 102 plus degrees F radiating from your forehead as you brush your hair back trying to stimulate yourself to alertness. A trip hammer thunders inside you at 100 to 110 beats per minute where your heart should be.
Good morning. You have Yellow Fever.

You Get Worse
A few days after the sudden onset of symptoms, as you worsen, you’ll become jaundiced and watch as your skin yellows to the point you more resemble a Halloween caricature than a dying person. The destruction of your liver cells results in the accumulation of yellow bile pigments in your skin, giving the disease its name. Your heart will slow to around 50 beats per minute. The rumbling in your stomach is your gastrointestinal tract bleeding. You vomit the characteristic black blood of Yellow Fever. It will become much worse. You don’t have long to suffer though. Death usually occurs between the fourth and eighth day after the onset of the disease.

The Mosquito
As little as three days, but more than likely around two weeks ago you were bitten by a species of an Aëdes aegypti mosquito while you were fishing in a tropical location or vacation spot where the disease occurs. That mosquito was itself infected by sucking the blood of an infected monkey or other infected primate or a sick person. If you are one of the rare cases who recovers, the disease will never recur, one attack providing immunity for life.

Yellow Fever is an untreatable, mosquito-borne disease which is endemic in Central America, some parts of South America and much of sub-Sahara Africa. Along both the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific coasts from Mexico to Panama, Colombia and Ecuador an alert caused by outbreaks of Yellow Fever is currently raging. From November until mid-January nearly a score of deaths from Yellow Fever are usually recorded. Immunization is of extreme importance. There is a good vaccine available which protects you for up to ten years. Many countries require an international vaccination certificate if you are traveling to or from an infected or endemic area because “many parts of the world are inhabited by mosquitoes capable of carrying this devastating disease and no one wants to see it spread beyond its present range”, according to Dr. Jane Wilson Howarth in “Bugs, Bites & Bowels”.

Resources
There is no specific medical treatment for Yellow Fever once it is contracted. Care consists of treating the symptoms of the disease by preventing dehydration and reducing fever. Bed rest is also important states Dirk G. Schroeder, ScD., MPH, in “Staying Healthy in Asia, Africa and Latin America”. In 1939 the South African physician Max Theiler developed a vaccine that confers immunity to the disease. The vaccine is not recommended for people with a severe allergy to eggs, children under 9 months of age, during pregnancy or in people who are immuno-supressed (e.g. cancer and AIDS sufferers, or people on high dose steroids).

Before traveling, you should discuss your options with a doctor or immunization center. If you are considering fishing or outdoor travel to Southeast Asia, Mexico, Panama, Colombia (or other countries in Central and South America), get vaccinated and carry the yellow health/vaccination records card you will be issued to avoid future problems. Take care. Don’t be a victim.

NOTE: You cannot enter a Yellow Fever area (i.e. Panama, Colombia, Brazil, etc.) without being vaccinated and you MUST show proof of vaccination within the past ten years.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? Contact the author for a prompt response.