Title: Spanish New Year’s Grape Tradition

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre
  • Customary folklore: Childhood holiday folklore

• Language: Spanish

• Country where Item is from: Colombia

Informant Data:

Stephanie Quintero was born in Takoma Park, Maryland on March 24, 1998.  She is 18 years old and has an older brother. She graduated from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland and is currently a freshman at Dartmouth College.

Contextual Data:

Stephanie was born to two Colombian parents who immigrated to the U.S. She gained a lot of exposure to Colombian culture through her parents, who taught her Spanish from an early age. She also learned many of the traditions and customs of Colombian culture. One of these is the Spanish New Year’s Grape Tradition. Her parents taught her this tradition from an early age and she actively participated in it while she was a child.

Item:

There is a classic Spanish tradition of eating grapes as soon as it becomes the new year. 12 grapes, representing each month in the year, would be eaten and after each one is eaten there would need to be a wish made otherwise you would have bad luck.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

Stephanie: In Colombia there is this tradition on New Year’s that the children eat 12 grapes and for each grape it’s one wish and if they don’t make one wish for each grape then it will be bad luck for them.

Chris: Who usually does this tradition?

Stephanie: It is usually all over Latin America, but in Colombia specifically it is just for children.

Informant’s Comments:

Stephanie noted that she participated in this tradition consistently when she was a child, but realized that as she got older she found herself not always doing it. She is not sure why that happened. However, she thinks that it is because as she grew up she realized that wishes do not always come true and found that the tradition no longer really served a purpose.

Collector’s Comments:

Stephanie’s experience is not entirely unique. Many children across Colombia grow up and end up no longer participating in the tradition. The tradition is largely seen as childish and many adults are ridiculed if they particiapte.

Collector’s Name: Chris Quintero

Tags/Keywords:

• Tradition, Superstition, Spanish folklore, Colombia, Colombian