A Very Peruvian New Years (with visitors from the states!)

I spent last New Year’s Eve on the beach in Northern Peru with my boyfriend and had an amazing time but I knew that this year I wanted to spend NYE in Huallanca since I will finish with my service in the Peace Corps in 2014. I wanted to start the first day of the year in my beautiful little town celebrating with the locals in their crazy ways. So I did just that. I spent New Year’s Eve in Huallanca with my boyfriend, my brother and sister-in-law and her parents who were visiting from the US. And I got to show them how Peruvians celebrate and party :)

1. Peruvians have several traditions that they do to bring in the New Year:

2. Drinking and dancing until the sun comes up
3. Wearing yellow underwear for good luck (I have no idea why!)
4. Eating 12 grapes for good luck (one for each month of the year) and making a wish for the new year with each grape
5. Making a life size doll out of old clothes that you burn at midnight to signify letting go of the old year and welcoming the new year
6. Running around the block with an empty suitcase to bring you travels in the New Year
7. Eating a big meal of potatoes and meat at midnight 

We of course wanted to participate in as many Peruvian traditions as possible and were successful in #3 and #4. We wanted to participate in traditional #2 but we didn’t see any Peruvian underwear that provoked us enough to buy it. Peruvian underwear tends to be very odd and uncomfortable. As for tradition #1 we didn’t drink and dance until the sun came up but we did dance with the Peruvians until after midnight :)

And they also sell a lot of yellow underwear in the street so that people can buy their yellow underwear for good luck

You can probably see why we weren't provoked to buy any...

Our doll that we made to burn!

My compadre trying to get us to drink some very strong and basically unbearable pure caña liquor

Pretending to drink the strong liquor (Peruvians have hard to take no for an answer)

Dancing it up Huayno style

Our doll wating to be burned at midnight!

Good bye to 2013!

Pachamanca

Eating pachamanca (my brother's first time)

Happy New Year!

It was so much fun to celebrate New Years with my brother and sister-in-law visiting me! I loved sharing my towns traditions with them and celebrating with them Peruvian style. Stay tuned for photos of my town's traditional dances that we watched on New Years Day :)