Brazilian traditions for the New Year and Hope



Fireworks - New Years Eve in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil



The New Year is coming.... and that has always been a very exciting period for me.

In Brazil, this is a big party, when all our hope for a better future is renovated.

Once I heard someone saying "this is rubbish, what changes at midnight?". Well, I would say: "perhaps nothing changes, but everything can change, if you want, of course".

Hope is a very powerful "tool". It is the hope that we can do things that makes us train, work, study ... to improve our lives. So what happens at midnight? At midnight we are given the opportunity to ponder about the last year (think about we have achieved, what we can do better, and what we want to change) and to renovate our hope for the future.

At this point we make a mental note of what we want to achieve.... and that is enough most of the time to make us progress, because it is a focus point.

When we believe things will improve, we act towards the objective, even in small day to day things, and everything makes a difference.

So.... Brazilian traditions for the New Year. We have a lot of them, and I thought it would be fun, and also inspiring to list some here:

1. Hope. This is really the most important tradition for a Brazilian New Year celebration. The idea that the new year will be better and that you can wish for what you want.

2. Happiness. We welcome the New Year with a big smile. I am sure that also makes life better.

3. Peace. The colours we wear for New Year's eve mean a lot for most of us.... white for peace, pink for love, red for passion, yellow for money, etc. Most of us will wear white! with our secret colour in our underwear ... if you are looking for love you may not wish to make that too obvious :) It is absolutely wonderful to watch the huge groups of people walking to the beach, all wearing white.... and even better when you think, we are all hoping for peace.

4. Fireworks.... this marks the celebration

5. To be at the beach - if possible of course.

6. Music: how can a Brazilian celebrate without music?


Now some more interesting ones:
7. Stay on the right foot at midnight... so you start the New Year with the right foot

8. Eat pomegranate... to bring good fortune

9. Eat 12 grapes ... again for good fortune

10. Eat lentils .... this must have come with the Italian immigrants who eat that believing it will bring money

11. Break a walnut and eat the nut at midnight, leaving the shelf re-shaped together. This will bring two together... for love.

12. Jump 7 small waves at the sea, making one wish for each wave. Then leave the sea walking backwards towards the beach - because you should not give your back to the sea. We believe jumping the waves means opening the way, the road. Seven in Canbomble represents Exu, the son of Iemanja.

13. Offer flowers, little boats. champagne to Iemanja. Iemanja comes from the African influence in Brazil. She is the Queen of the Sea and one of the seven orixas in Candomble and Umbanda religions. On New Year's eve many people offer her gifts by throwing them into the sea and asking for their wishes. I do like very much the idea of the Queen of the Sea, but I do not like the idea of throwing things into the sea, as they come back to the shore and hurt people, unfortunately (rose's thorn, glass bottles, etc).

14. Also for Iemanja, many people will lit candles in the sand, at the beach.

15. Drink a little bit of champagne and throw the rest behind you. This is to eliminate all the bad things that happened in the "old" year. It was funny once when we were at the beach in Rio and my friend ended up throwing champagne by accident in someone behind her. There were 2 million people in Copacabana!

16. You must greet someone of the opposite sex first. To bring love.

17. Put money under your foot at midnight. To bring money.

18. Always wear new underwear to bring luck and love.



So.... we do have a lot of traditions for this date.... you may believe in some or none of them....

The most important really is the renovation of hope and the belief that a better future can be achieved, so you will act towards that.

If I still didn't manage to persuade you, please watch the movie "The Shawshank Redemption". It is a wonderful lesson about hope and its meaning!


Happy New Year....

May your good wishes be true.

The New Year is coming, allow yourself happiness

Family.... why are there so many problems within families? Why can Xmas be such a stressful period?

Since childhood we are taught about rules and expectations we should have of relatives. And the teaching comes not only from our parents, but also from the society, cartoons, movies, school, even the children drawings we do.

But family is not always in the way we expect. In fact, most families fail to meet expectations at some point.

The difference with friends is that when they are not in the way we would like, we can change friends, or we can stop meeting them for a while. And we meet again we have forgotten about things.... with family it is not like that.

Xmas is very much a family occasion.... well, at least according to the expectations.... and there are so many rules, the food one is suppose to cook, the way one should dress, the time the meal should be served, how many gifts should be given.

So, family problems are highlighted during this period.

People without the money to meet all this must be strong to avoid feeling bad. On the other hand, it is probably a much more meaningful season without all the money. But this is a discussion for a separate post

This Xmas I met my family reality again and tried very hard to accept them as they are. And I must admit it is a hard task. It can hurt when we hope for a lot (and I don't mean gifts, I mean feelings, acts of care and love) and things don’t happen in the way we dream. And there is also the behaviour I think I should have too. And I feel under pressure to do things right. If I could overcome all that, I am sure I would be happier.

Today I read something interesting:

“It is very difficult to start a New Year and be happy if you have so many bad (hurt) feelings in your heart. It is best to forgive the people who have hurt you. But forgiving is difficult, most people don’t understand it... To forgive is nothing more than to remove the frame of expectations you created for people and start to see them as they really are ... Perhaps Xmas is here to remind us we are all human, and we all make mistakes.”

We all have hurt or disappointed someone at some point.
And perhaps we also need to forgive ourselves for our own shortfalls.


In few words: forgiving is all about allowing yourself to be happy!

Lake District, enjoying the know and keeping the child we all have inside ourselves alive

We spent this weekend at the Lake District in England.....


The mountains create a new beautiful surprise at each turn of the road, which by the way is not fast, giving you time to absorb all you see. And the landscape is completed with miles and miles of stone walls, dotted around the hills. As we walked up one of the paths, we wondered how many years ago the walls were built, how heavy and laborious it must have been to bring all these stones up there and how difficult to build the walls in this type of landscape. The walls are made of stones only - no cement, in case you wonder.
I am not sure if this happens all year around, but the sheep (there are loads of them everywhere) were all marked with colours.... some red, others red and blue and there were even some red, blue and yellow. I am very curious to know what the colours mean... no need to say they also made the day prettier, bringing colour to the place and we decided to name them Benetton (United Colours of Benetton).

Very near us it was also Keswick, a small town, but there was a lot going one, a buzz in the cafes and shops, etc.

Eating in Kewswick..... Well, in that case I must admit I was a little disappointed, as I expected more fire places, more home made food, cosy places in this cold weather. There wasn't so much in that respect. Instead, there were plenty of cafes, I ended up having a pie in one of them, which had been clearly re-heated in a microwave. Some businesses complete miss the opportunity to impress, as I could not even cut the pastry one minutes after it arrived.

On the other hand, we had the most amazing meal in Windermere, in the hotel where we stayed. I didn't have high expectations, but they really impressed us. The meals were beautifully presented, the flavours and ingredients combined in an unexpected way and I had the best gnocchi I ever had. They also served us a free pre-dessert, such a nice touch... a small white chocolate and vanilla creme brulee. It was delicious, served as two layers, one was the white chocolate and one the vanilla. Fantastic!

This trip was booked a couple of weeks ago and, although I knew there was a risk of bad weather, all I expected was some snow. But not as wet as it was. The day before we arrived, it was extremely windy, some roads were closed due to mud slides, floods, etc.

Still, we were lucky as the roads re-opened on Friday and the persistent rain was intermittent, allowing for short walks. On Saturday morning the houses were covered in snow (which melted away later with the rain) ... Windermere was like a Xmas movie scenery when we woke up.

Snow... ahhh ... it is impossible for me not to smile when I see snow. Even if I now know about its risks, I still love it. It brings out the child inside me. As adults we are taught to be composed, responsible, etc..... but to be a child, even if it is for few minutes is very energising.... I felt like dancing around the room when I saw the house roof tops covered in snow.

Keeping the child inside us is so important! it is that pure feeling of joy when you experience something, a feeling without shame of how silly we may be, the fear of any risks the situation brings, or the expectations society have of seriousness or even of being funny ..... just the pure feeling of joy, without anything else. Being able to experience that from time to time re-charges our batteries. Perhaps that is why we need to be parents and grandparents, because during those moments when we play with our children and grandchildren, we allow the child we all were once to come back and live again for few minutes.


All in all, the mountains and the surrounding brought us a lot of peace, re-energised and amazed me by its beauty. I hope I can keep this feeling in my memory, to savour it for a while.

(I am sorry blogger does not allow me to upload the above picture with higher resolution, it was truly beautiful, but here it is not very good...)


The Lake District is stunning. A place that is beautiful in any weather. This weekend, it had a wild look - due to the heavy wind and rain. There were very heavy clouds at times and it looked like nature was rebelling. Nevertheless, everything also looks so tranquil, the grass was extremely green, and some of the vegetation has gone red bringing colour to the wet gray day.

Freedom is a fantastic gift. Fear and worry are a prison.

Freedom must be one of the best feelings.....
In one of my previous blogs I think I remember mentioning "the moment we are going through". Well, it has been stressful times in my house in the past few months.... but this process is now coming to an end and this has been the first weekend we had in peace.

It is so liberating. Such a nice feeling that made me smile out of nothing from time to time.

When the present is a bit lighter, it makes me automatically dream about a better future. Dreaming is very energising.

Once someone told me that fear and worry are like a prison. And I would say it is true. Both can stop one from living the present, and the future.

A toast for the better times that awaits for us in the future !