Enjoy New Year In Granada - but don't forget the red underwear!

I really enjoy New Year in Granada.

Last year I followed the local tradition of wearing red underwear on New Year's Eve. According to our friends, it promised me good luck throughout the following year, especially if someone else bought it for me!

When we first moved here to our bed and breakfast accommodation in Padul I was puzzled by seeing red underwear for sale on market stalls and by street-sellers before new year in Granada. A lot of the clothing looks really good quality - and at a very good price too. Now I understand why this underwear is being sold. And why people buy it.

Tradition states that the wearing of red underwear dates back to the middle ages when wearing red was forbidden because of associations with the devil and witchcraft. So what did people do? They wore red (their symbol of life) underneath their clothes where it wouldn't be seen.

Traditions move on and often can enrich our lives. For instance I passed a group of women exchanging presents on Christmas day. They were in their late sixties. When one of them opened her gift to find a red thong they all hooped with laughter. And I wouldn't mind betting that, come New Year's Eve, she will be joining in with this Spanish tradition too....

Another tradition at New Year's Eve is that of eating 12 grapes at midnight. One grape per srike of the clock. To the uninitiated this probably sounds quite easy to do but eating one grape per second is difficult, although the striking of the clock at Midnight on New Year's Eve is slowed down slightly in order to help us tp "get them all in".

One grape per strike gives us a month of luck per grape during the following year. The thing is - if you look around at the faces of your friends trying to squeeze another grape into their mouths it's bound to make you want to laugh - but if you do, you know your grape eating will be thwarted. It really is a difficult tradition to uphold. But it is well worth it - and such good fun, too!

Of course, you don't have to be in Granada for new year in order to join in with these traditions. No matter where you are, you can still wear your red underwear and eat your twelve grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve. So why not join with us here in Granada - from wherever you are - and have yourself a lucky year.

And as for me, as well as eating my own 12 grapes and washing them down with a glass of bubbly I will wish everyone Feliz Nochevieja and a Feliz Aņo (Happy New Year's Eve and a Happy New Year). With my secret underwear on I know I can't fail to have a lucky New Year in Granada and an especially good whole year through.

Feliz Aņo to you, wherever you may be.