Every December 31millions of people repeat gestures that do not appear in any official calendar, but which are maintained with surprising cultural stability. Eating certain foods, cleaning the house or dress in one color More precisely, these are practices that cross countries, religions and political systems. On the occasion of contemporary New Year’s Eve, the color of clothing, visible or intimate, has established itself as one of the the most persistent rituals symbolically facing the uncertainty of the year to come.
Cultural anthropology has been explaining this for decades. behaviors as rituals of control: simple actions that allow societies to channel collective desires in times of change. Cultural institutions and ethnographic museums agree that the change of year functions as a symbolic threshold particularly conducive to this type of gesture, where everyday life is charged with meaning without the need for a religious or political authority to legitimize it.
Red in southern Europe
In southern Europe, this symbolism focuses on red. In Spain, the custom of wear underwear of this color It was transmitted without a clearly documented origin, but with notable social force. Public media and cultural organizations have described this tradition as an example of non-institutionalized folk ritual, associated with love and good luckwhich is reproduced year after year without the need for rational explanations or formal historical support.
Italy offers a very similar, although more visible, version. Over there, wear red in Capodanno, Italian word for New Year, is part of the collective imagination and extends beyond underwear. The official Italian tourism portal itself considers this practice a deeply rooted tradition, symbolically linked to prosperity and protection against bad luck, and shows to what extent the ritual has also been integrated into the commercial and urban logic of the end of the year.
More colors in Latin America
In Latin Americathe color code is expanded and becomes more explicit. Along with red, yellow has become a popular color associated with money and economic success.while the white or green are linked to the calm and health. In Brazil, this logic reaches its maximum collective expression: wearing white during the New year’s eve It is a massive practice, explained by cultural and tourist institutions as a heritage of Afro-Brazilian traditions in which this color symbolizes purification and the start of a new cycle.
Symbolism and superstition
In East Asia, the role of color is even more codified. In Chinathe red dominates the Lunar New Year within the framework of a structured symbolic system, documented by state cultural institutions and national museums: it is not an isolated superstition, but a visual language associated with good fortune and protection. Color organizes the celebration transversally, from clothing to public space.
Japan provides a significant contrast. Although there is no superstitious rule on the color to wear on the night of December 31, the white and red tones appear recurrently in shogatsu. THE Japan National Tourism Organization explains this usage within the framework of a ritual symbology linked to purity, renewal and protection, present in traditional clothing, festive gastronomy and decorative elements of the New Year.
Beyond cultural differences, all these practices reveal the same contemporary need: translate desire into a shared gesture when the future seems uncertain. Color does not promise miracles and does not change the course of the year, but it still works as a social tool to organize expectationscreate community and give meaning to a night that, every December, recharges with symbolism something as simple and human as getting dressed before starting again.
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