Claessens' & Lassig's

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2 Lucky Winners Will Win Products Perfect For A Better Night's Sleep For Both You and Baby! Both Winners receive the Claessens' Kids Kid'Sleep Moon Sleeptrainer Nightlight PLUS Lassig's Muslin Swaddle & Burp Blanket (2 Pack) ~ TRV $160!

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It is well known, that there are many traditions and rituals to greet the upcoming year, and many others to say farewell to the year that has passed. From the kiss at midnight, to the drinking of champagne. In this blog post, we will share with you, some of the New Year's traditions we practice.
On New Year's Eve;

Summarizing the year. I love getting my journal out, and writing a summary of each month. The important things we lived, saw, and experienced. Because I am very passionate about our family tree, this tradition is something that at some point may help our kids and future generations understand things that we might not always talked about, but which were important at some point. I believe it helps understand the great things, and how we overcame obstacles. Because it is a summary, family members can browse quickly through it, and find out more about once's lives. Sometimes I like going back and comparing different years. Surprisingly, you may even find patterns that may help you in years to come.
Closure of the year. Like the year summary, I love writing down the last things I did throughout the year. What was the last movie we went to see, the last joke we heard, the last dinner we had, the last song we sang, and so on. I think it is one of my favorite things to do, because it challenges me into making these last things enjoyed, something that is worth writing about.

Carefully select the color of our underwear. It might sound a little odd, and may even be something you've never heard of. I am not sure if it is a Nationwide tradition in Mexico, but I do know we practice this in my hometown. I grew up with the believe that the color of underwear you are wearing to receive the New Year, will bring you luck accordingly to what the color represent. The most common colors that people plan on using are; Red, to attract love of course and Yellow or Gold to attract fortune. However, here are more color choices and a brief description on what they are suppose to represent and attract to your life in the upcoming year.

1. White: Peace and Harmony
2. Orange: Happier vibes
3. Pink: Romance, Beauty & Love
4. Red: Love & Passion
5. Yellow/Gold: Opportunities for wealth and good fortune
6. Green: Health
7. Blue: To assist you with the mind to follow through projects.
8. Purple: Spirituality 
9. Black: Luxuries

Why underwear? I honestly have no clue. It could be perhaps, because this tradition works as a wish, and wishes are not to be told out loud. In a way, you can make your wish, and attract it with the color you chose, and no matter what it was, in theory, people are not suppose to know. However, here's the tricky part. The underwear you are using can't be bought. It has to be gifted by someone else to you.
Therefore, what people in my region do is an underwear gift exchange. Sometimes, these are even funny underwear gift exchanges. You have a fun time, and you get your gifted underwear. Though it might not always work, because let's face it--a lot of it has to do with the belief you have on something you do. I must confess that whenever I tried it, it worked for me. And if I may add, it also works with socks. So, give it a try. Maybe you can create a new tradition among your family and friends and do the underwear gift exchange, or try it with socks and see what happens.

Prepping for the traditional actions to receive the New Year. We do a few rituals right at midnight to start the year attracting the energy of those actions, therefore, we like to have everything ready for midnight. Some people kiss, others scream, we--eat grapes, go in and out with luggage in hand, interchange coins, and make wishes. Having everything ready helps us a ton, to save time, as these rituals have to be done as soon as midnight bells start ringing.

New Year;

As soon as the clock marks midnight, everything becomes a go-go-go with our traditional rituals, which are the following, in order.

Eat a grape, make a wish. The countdown is the most stressful moment for us. We hold a small bowl with 12 grapes, each of which represents a month of the upcoming year. The point of this is to eat a grape with every ring of the midnight bells. This is the reason why we tend to get seedless grapes, and if they are small grapes, the better. This way you are able to chew quickly and pass it before the next grape/bell ring/wish comes. To make sure you know what wish you are asking for and to make it efficient, I recommend you write your wishes down ahead of time. That way you can read them in your mind as you are munching on that yummy grape, and move on to the next. Please, be careful if you attempt to do this ritual. If you think this one is too much of a rush, do it at our own pace, or try other rituals instead. In my family, we've been doing this for generations, and therefore we have kind of mastered this ritual. Nonetheless, I have to confess, that every now and then, there is coughing and a bit of chocking. So attempt at your own risk.
Exchange coins. This was my grandmother's favorite ritual. I believe, that it was because it is very similar to the exchange of coins during weddings. So for this one, you need 12 coins that are of the same denomination (i.e. 12 pennies, 12 nickles, 12 dimes, 12 quarters, 12 pesos). This tradition can be done in two different ways. If you are a family, you can pass the 12 coins at the same time to another person's hands, as if it was water pouring to their hands, and then they can return them to you, or pass them on to another member of the family. However, consider that they have to pass through each individual's hands 12 times too. And you can also just pass the 12 coins from one of your hands to the other twelve times. I've done it both ways and both have worked for me. This tradition is usually to attract money and good fortune, and keep it flowing throughout the twelve months of the year.
Pack your bags! This is one of the newest traditions that I've adopted. I don't remember well where I heard this, but when I moved out of Mexico, I decided to give it a try, and it worked for me. Some of you might know that I used to work in an airline for almost 6 years of my life. Though I loved the idea of traveling, I never really did it much. I think mainly, because whenever I had days off, I wanted to spend quality time with my family at home. Nonetheless, I did travel fairly, and went to places that I always wanted to go. When I moved to the US, and didn't work at the airline anymore, I found it harder to travel, at least enough to visit family. Then I remember this ritual, and voala, I attracted a few trips on that year. This ritual is very easy. All you need to do is hold at least one luggage bag in your hand, and step out your door, and then back inside. Repeat this step out/step in process to complete twelve times, and you are done. I found this tradition to be a lot of fun, and you can do it by yourself, or with the whole family.
Though I really liked this one, I must say that I do not do it all the time. Unfortunately there are still people who like shooting into the air passed midnight, and the problem with loose bullets, is that they all follow the law of gravity. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish from fireworks and bullets, so please, please be careful with this one. If you have a door to the garage, maybe you can try it there and let me know if it works. Oh, and by the way, your luggage doesn't have to be fully packed nor have anything outside. It is more of the action of going out on a trip with your luggage at hand, and coming back home.
Memories of the first of everything. With all the euphoria of the previously described rituals, we end up with so much energy, that we tend to watch a movie. At that moment, I love writing down, what was the first thing I ate, drank, sang, watched, and so on for the year. It is kind of like writing the last things you did or appreciated, but in in the opposing firsts.

And that is about it for our rituals. Now, we also have some beliefs in my family. We believe that you can tell how the year is going to go, by the first twelve days of the  year. Each of the first twelve days represents a month, and usually, they tend to be very accurate in my home town, mostly, because we have crazy weather, and it can be very hot in winter, as it may be very cold in summer at times. One thing is for certain, and something that no matter what, I've observed throughout my life. I have the belief that your year goes pretty much in the way you start it. So my advice is; Start your day with happy thoughts, positive thinking, and with great sense of humor, and hopefully that energy will stick with the days and months to follow.

My husband also loves celebrating Chinese New Year, so we have a double celebration if we kind of think about it. However, that is another whole set of traditions and rituals, that will be better left for another blog post.

All in all, different countries have different traditions. Some of the traditions stick and some of them we do once and never to be repeated again. Do you have any interesting or odd traditions for the New Year? I would love to read about your traditions and what they represent. I am always looking for great and interesting rituals to practice in festivities like this one, and share my experience with family and friends. So please share with our online community through a comment. If you could wish for only one thing for the upcoming year, what would it be?

Thank you for spending some time with us through our blog, and for being part of our online community. We really hope to share many great reviews, giveaways, and fun content with all of you in this upcoming  year. And so, without further ado, may all your goals and wishes for the next year come true. From the bottom of our hearts, Happy and Prosperous 2017, from all of us at Just Happiling.

XOXO

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