Happy New Year Mexican Style

At the stroke of midnight, Mexicans eat one grape with each chime of the church bells during the New Year's Eve countdown. They make a wish as they eat each grape. Incidentally the price of grapes skyrockets the closer it gets to New Year's Eve. One store had 12 grapes selling for $6.00.
Another New Year's tradition is to put out a ceramic or stuffed sheep. The sheep is supposed to be put at the door or hung on the doorknob to insure prosperity for the coming year. The Mexican word for wool is "lana" which is also slang for money.
Displays such as this--selling red or bright yellow underwear--is very common in most Mexican cities. If you want to find love in the New Year, you should wear new red underwear. If you want to find money, you should wear new yellow underwear.
Finally...people make life sized dolls out of old clothes and fill the doll with fireworks. These "old men" dolls are set on fire at the stroke of midnight representing the end of the old year and the beginning of a new year.

How much better is our hope for the future which rests firmly in God instead of in earthly superstitions.

The land..is a land...that the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end." Deuteronomy 11: 11 & 12

We can not tell what the New Year will bring--what joys or what sorrows, what challenges or what trials. We can only trust that God is near and will lead us.

With God at our side, it will be a good year, a blessed year!