“There’s a story behind everything,” I used to tell my English Comp students at UNM-Taos every semester. “Look for the story.”
One of the ways I strove to drive this point home was to have an end-of-semester party in which each student brought a dish of everyday, popular food, accompanied by the story behind it. The food was spread out, buffet-style, on long tables against one wall, and the students’ one-page stories in the form of short essays were tacked on the wall above each dish.
Take chocolate-chip cookies, for instance, which at least one student always brought. There’s a fascinating, true story behind this favorite American cookie’s origin. (To learn it, Google origin of Toll House Cookies.) Rice, of course, has an ancient history, as does tortillas. (Baloney probably has a ghastly story; no one ever chose it.)
These were meant to be lessons in observation and curiosity – really noticing the things around us which we might otherwise ignore, and inquiring about them – all part of the bigger picture I was trying to convey called Critical Thinking.
I thought of this this week while doing my weekly shopping at La Comer, the large, bright, well managed superstore here in San Miguel de Allende. The holiday signs and decorations are up, holiday music is in the air, and – WHAT!? – women’s red and yellow undies are clearly on display near the checkout counters. I wondered: How many of us gringos know the story behind this seemingly innocent (after all, this is a family store) custom?
In Mexico, as in many Latin countries I’ve learned, the underwear a woman wears on New Year’s Eve is thought to have a big impact on her year ahead. Yellow undies, so the story goes, bring good financial fortune. Red undies bring luck in love.
I had a friend here, my age, who’s since returned to the States, who tested this hypothesis one New Year’s Eve. She wore red panties beneath her otherwise simple, classic party dress. And sure enough, she met a sweet man that night and fell in love. She became a believer.
Every culture, I suppose, has its own New Year’s Eve traditions – expressions of hope, however strange to outsiders, that the year ahead will be a good one, perhaps better than the year just passed.
My German grandmother, for example, if she was visiting, would make our family German herring salad (from jarred pickled herring, cooked cubed beets, and boiled potatoes) to bring us all good luck in the New Year. (I don’t remember her trick ever working.) She would have been horrified, I’m sure, by the thought of wearing daring red or yellow panties for the occasion.
But leave it to good-natured Mexicans to cling to this fun undies tradition. Mexicans have a way of laughing at life, I’ve observed, which is well worth emulating.
I’m now considering buying a pair of both – yellow and red – and wearing them together this New Year’s Eve because I’m in an especially hopeful mood about 2023.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL MY WOW READERS! AND GOOD LUCK, GOOD HEALTH, GOOD FORTUNE, AND MUCHO LOVE IN THE NEW YEAR.
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Bold! With you as an inspiration, I plan to buy undies in Turkey.
Ha-ha! I’d suggest you buy them here and take them with you. These will be the magical Mexican ones! 🙂
It’s true that Mexico everything has a special magic!
Indeed! 🙂
I’ll be shopping for yellow undies! Thanks
Yes! And hurry, Kate — they might sell out fast! 🙂
What a charming story, Bonnie. I wish you the same good everything in the coming year!
Thank you, dear Jan! My best to you. — BB
Happy colorful Holidays! undies and all!
Same to you, Rae! May 2023 be colorful and joyful in every way!
I Love This! I’m voting that you wear both pairs this New Years Eve! I’ll be thinking of you that way. xoxo
Ha! Well, if I do, I WON’T be taking a selfie in them. 🙂
GREAT IDEAS!!!!!! Very interesting! Love your interesting articles!!!!
So glad you do, dear Beth! Abrazos, BB xx
Dear Bon,
I think you are making a very wise choice. Clearly, Mexico is a land of enchantment and magic, in a way that puts US to shame. I predict your plan will work beautifully!
Love,
Paul
Well, dear Paul, it remains to be seen whether I actually follow through on this plan…:-) Sending you mucho love from sunny-and-warm SMA, BB xx
You sound so happy, la Bonnie! Great two choices! Amarillo y rojo for me also, por favor! Mucho amor y prosperidad.
Gracias, querida Te! Is this the New Year’s Eve custom in Cuba too, I wonder? Mucho love from SMA, BB xx
What a fun story. Thanks.
You’re welcome, dear Lyn!
They have a red tradition in Italy for New Years Eve. I didnt know about it when I has invited to a New Years Party in Venice one year. Somone told me to wear something red so I wore a red silk sari I had bought in India. But on arrival at the party I learned that the red item was supposed to be hidden and the party guests were supposed to guess what it was, and where it was hidden.
What could I do? Well, because I was wearing a sari, my midriff was bare, so I surreptitiously took a maraschino cherry from the punch bowl and hid it in my navel! I won the party prize for the most original red item in the least suspected hiding place.
Great story, dear Ruth!!! I can envision you doing this. You must have had such FUN! — LU, BB xx
Bonnie, thank you for another story about Mexican tradition and culture. You always boost me up emotionally and help me to see small but important things right before our eyes. Feliz navidad
Joni
Thank you, Joni. I sometimes think I should have been a cultural anthropologist; I find all the world’s cultures endlessly fascinating. Happy Holidays to you!
Good luck, Bonnie. You absolutely MUST tell us how those red panties worked out for you!
Thanks so much, Betty! And if I work up the courage to wear both yellow and red at the same time, I might have an even more interesting tale to tell. 🙂
Very cute! My mother would go out at midnight with a suitcase which meant lots of traveling that year.
Are you sure she wasn’t attempting to run away? 🙂 (Just kidding!) — Mucho love to you and your whole family! — BB xx
Fun undies! YAY! I’ll be looking for a red pair, if I can find XL size to fit over my tush.
Ha-ha! I’m sure they’re carrying all sizes at La Comer (aka Mega), Rhoda dear! 🙂
Bonnie, my Greek mother would always make sure the children had a new outfit on New Year’s Day. If she couldn’t afford the whole works, we at least had fresh new underwear. To see the New Year in with new beginnings with clothes that weren’t tainted with the previous year’s events! Its so ingrained in me that at 62, I still do it with a brightly coloured Summer dress, or shirt. I love the Mexican tradition more, though, because of the specific request to each colour. May you receive a healthy dose of both love and money, in 2023!
Dear Loula — Thank you so much for sharing your mom’s New Year’s tradition! I love the “newness” of it. I’m excited about all the new that lies ahead in 2023. All best wishes to you.
I love reading your blogs. This one was very funny. I am retired and have a passion for painting. I am looking forward to my visit SMA in April. Would love to meet and take you to lunch/coffee. I want to learn about living in SMA and the arts there. Fondly Sandy
Thank you, Sandra! I look forward to your visit. — BB
This is hilarious, BonnieDear! Especially your last paragraph. It reminded me of the year I moved to Taos, 2003. I was visiting a friend, David—a man who was the brother of my cousin in Denver and was in the process of dying. He was divorced and so was I, but we were just friends. On New Year’s Eve, he invited me over for red chili and beans—his Northern New Mexico specialty. Around 8, his son, daughter-in-law, and their two friends stopped by to wish David a Happy New Year. As they were leaving, I suggested I’d be right behind them. David’s son turned to me and said, “Please don’t go. Please stay here with my dad till midnight. They say that if you’re alone on New Year’s Eve, you’ll be alone for the rest of the year.” So I stayed with David till after midnight. That next year, four months later, in 2004, I met Michael, and we’ve lived happily ever after. So even though I’m not superstitious, I’m now a firm believer in that particular superstition.
Thank you, BeDear, for sharing this lovely story! I’m sure other WOW readers will appreciate — and heed it — too. — Mucho love from SMA, BB xx
Ha ha!! The year I discovered this tradition along with eating grapes at midnight, I wore three pairs of undies-red, yellow and blue. I think the blue was for financial stability. They were uncomfortable and probably didn’t work but it was a great story to tell that evening!!
Well, well! Blue too! Must add that one to my shopping list! 🙂