In Peru, New Year's Eve Comes Dressed in Yellow

Markets fill with yellow underwear, yellow clothing and yellow decorations, all bought with the hope that the color will bring good luck, prosperity and abundance in the year ahead.

And apparently, the more optimistic among us don't stop at the underwear.

At midnight, some Peruvians eat 12 grapes, making a wish for each month of the coming year. Others tuck a bill into their shoe for financial luck, carry lentils for abundance, or grab an empty suitcase and run around the block in the hope of filling the coming year with travel.

I particularly love the suitcase.

There is something rather wonderful about the idea that, at the exact moment one year ends and another begins, you can simply grab your suitcase and run toward the life you hope is waiting for you.

But the yellow tradition is the one I will likely carry forward. Entering the New Year with color and hope sounds about right.

Yellow is associated with gold, prosperity and good fortune, and in the days leading up to New Year's Eve, Peru’s streets can look as though someone has thrown a bucket of sunshine over the city. There are vendors everywhere selling everything imaginable in yellow.

I am totally smitten with this tradition, and we soaked it up when we were in Peru. We had just returned from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo when New Year’s Eve arrived. We celebrated in the main square, where the dancing seemed to begin the minute the clock struck twelve.

Suddenly, there was yellow confetti flying through the air, fireworks overhead, music everywhere, and people spilling into the square to dance.

Strangers became dancing partners.

Everyone was laughing and hugging and wishing one another a happy new year, and somehow, surrounded by people we had never met, it felt wonderfully intimate.

It remains one of my favourite New Year's Eves ever.

Perhaps every culture has its own way of saying the same thing:

Please let this next year be a good one.

And honestly, I'm quite tempted to start the tradition myself.

Pass the yellow knickers. 💛

A few facts about the tradition

It's not just Peru.

Colored underwear as a New Year's ritual is found in several Latin American countries.The Smithsonian notes that the practice appears across many Latin American countries, with yellow associated with wealth and red with love.

Nobody seems to know exactly when it began.

There isn't a clear documented starting date for Peru's yellow-underwear tradition. It was already described as an established Peruvian New Year's custom decades ago, and appears to have been passed down through generations. A 2009 account from a Peruvian journalist described it as an “old tradition.”

The newness matters too.

Wearing something new for the New Year is actually a much broader tradition. The Smithsonian notes that folklorists documented the custom as far back as 1927. The symbolism is wonderfully simple: don't carry the old into the new.

Yellow isn't the only choice.

Across Latin America, different colors can be chosen according to what you hope to attract: yellow for prosperity or luck, red for love, white for peace and other colors for different wishes.

Peru really does take it seriously.

Yellow underwear isn't simply a funny tourist anecdote. Contemporary Peruvian sources continue to list yellow clothing or underwear among the country's popular New Year's cábalas, or good-luck rituals.