My Latin New Year’s Cleaning Traditions

Thanks to the great folks at Libman® for making this New Year’s clean up post possible. My opinions, comments, and hopes for the new year are my own.

If your house looks anything like mine right now, and I hope it doesn’t, you’re probably thinking about getting it cleaned up, scrubbed out, straightened, and ready for the new year.

You may know, too, that the holidays are far from over for many Latino families, so there’s no way to start slacking yet.

Like everyone else, we still have New Year’s Day, of course; but, in addition, we have other holidays to celebrate before we can call it a season. January 6th is Día de Los Reyes, and February 2nd is Día de Candelaria, just to name two.

But that’s not all, the week between Christmas and New Year’s comes with cleaning traditions we Mexicans take seriously, and these act as incentives to get the house spotless before January 1st.

We sweep the entire house from back to front and fling the dust out the front door. It’s our version of out with the old, in with the new.

Then, we mop and clean and scrub our homes so they enter the new year the way we want them to finish it. We believe cleaning the home gets rid of any negativity hanging around and makes room for welcoming positivity in the new year.

Personally, I like to dust, organize and get rid of things we don’t need anymore, too, in order to make room for our Christmas and Dia de Reyes presents.

We have other traditions, too. For instance, if we hope to travel in the new year, we might put a suitcase out on the front porch. Or, if prosperity is our hope for the new year, we toss coins into the house from the front porch or put a dollar bill in our shoes.

Good luck and happy cleaning!

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Silvia Martinez

Silvia started bilingual website Mama Latina Tips in 2009 to connect and share her stories, recipes and culture with readers. Silvia loves dancing, cooking, watching movies, reading, throwing Mexican parties and spending time with family and friends. Silvia is the winner of The Great American Recipe.

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