New Years

Gabriela J. Bachman Professor Lathrop Writing 1 19 October, 2009 New Years at Home As I describe in judge hotshot, New Years for my family is a very most-valuable event and we celebr consume it with a number of activities establish in superstition. concord to Wikipedia (1) superstition is defined as a credulous belief, not based on savvy. The word is comm only applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and weird beings, particularly the irrational belief that future events can be influenced.Despite the position that Catholicism is the important religion in my country, in all Peruvians believe in superstition. New Years Eve is when mass confirm these superstitions by perform a variety of strange religious rites such as enthusiastic a Muneco de Ano Nuevo, wearing yellow radiocarpal joint bands, eating grapes at midnight, and placing lentils in our pockets, all these in order to push some luck and prosperity into our flavor. In the following paragraphs I wi ll be making a deeper abstract on the center of these rituals and explaining why these rituals are still being carried by Peruvian families.One of the most famous rituals and the first I described in show one is pass water and burning our first Muneco de Ano Nuevo. A Muneco de Ano Nuevo is an range of an important public person that had caused a big commotion during the year. Since in the past decades, politics has been a topic that has caused deception and discontent to Peruvians this is the agent why effigies are mostly created to represent politicians as showed in this personationway from essay one we made an effigy of Alberto Fujimori, who was the president at that time, and who didnt have a good re set upation. Since my family is very interested in politics, this ritual is a joy for them. The part of the ritual they enjoy the most is the burning of the effigy. This doesnt mean we want to see the real person in flames, but we see it as type of anger therapy, as subs tance of getting rid of all the frustrations we have accumulated towards the politician during the past year, hoping he will change and consequently, he will help to cause prosperity to our country. Besides releasing our anger, building and urning the Muneco is also intended to use up the family together into a last bodily process of the ending year, and first activity of the starting year, hoping family unity will be avowed throughout the full year. Everyone has an important role in this activity. Although my siblings and I were in charge of building the Muneco de Ano Nuevo,, my whole family contributed in different aspects, as this sentence from essay one clearly illustrates it we used mammys tan pantyhose to build the face, protoactiniums old blue jeans and black suit jacket to build the body, and my grandfathers white tennis shoes to make the feet. A very important role in this ritual is the role of the males, which is to nourish their children by doing the most dangerous activities involved in this ritual, as this passage from essay one shows my dad and uncles closed the street, sat the Muneco in the nerve centre of the street, bath it on gasoline, and lighted it on flames. A superstition that is more(prenominal) focused with our accounting is wearing a yellow wristband in New Years Eve. As I said in essay one my mom gave to each of us a yellow wrist band which we wore the entire night. In Peru, yellow is the dominating falsify of New Year because is associated with hope, happiness, and optimism.Likewise, yellow is the color of the good things in life such as the sun and gold. But this superstition has a deeper meaning of just being the color that identifies a celebration in incident it has a connection with the past. For our ancestors, the sun was our God, and the gold was the treasure used to approve him, but when Spain colonized Peru, they stole our gold and forced natives to change their religion. This is the main reason why we celebrate New Year in Yellow, as a way to award homage to our roots and ancestors, hoping our country will never have to go through this pain again.Lastly, two family orient superstitions that were also mentioned in essay one are eating grapes at midnight and placing lentils in our pockets. Eating grapes right when the clock strikes midnight is a common superstition practiced in Peru and Latin America in general. Right after, my mom and aunts ran to the kitchen to get the grapes () they handed us a bowl with twelve grapes each, which we ate under the table. This example, as strange as it seems, involve us getting under the table to eat twelve grapes in only twelve seconds.Per each grape that we eat, which represents a month of the year, we get to implore a wish. If all the grapes are sweet, it means it will be a good year in contrast, if for example the fourth grape was drear or not as sweet as the other ones, it means that April is not going to be a good month. As for the reason why we h ave to get under the table to eat the grapes, I think this just help us on concentrating when asking for the wishes and to stay off choking since all the grapes must be eaten very fast. Another family orient superstition I mentioned is to carry lentils in our pockets during New Years Eve.In my country, people consider lentils as being a very nutritious victuals because it contains a big amount of proteins, minerals, and vitamins. As I mentioned in essay one my mom handed us a handful of lentils that we put in our pockets for the entire night. The illustration of the mother handing out lentils to her kids symbolizes the love and apportion the mother has towards their kids, providing nourishment and making sure they have the vitamins they need to incur strong. By practicing this superstition, we believe food will be available on our table throughout the whole year.Also, lentils resemble coins, thus we believe that carrying lentils in our pockets during New Years Eve will bring m oney to our home. (Transition) Although I have immigrated to a new country and culture, I will maintain these beliefs in my family, and I will pass it onto my children as my grandparents did to my parents, and my parents did to me. And whether or not all these superstitions are true, they have become part of the Peruvian history and folklore, making our New Years celebration unique. Work Cited (1) Wikipedia, the excess Encyclopedia. Superstition. Web. 19 Oct. 2009. http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Superstition