Spanish New Year's tradition

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Let’s stay a bit more time in this magic time and let’s talk about Spanish New Year’s tradition, which is… eating grapes.  When I ask my Spanish friends what they did for New Year’s eve, they usually say they ate dinner, they drank wine and they ate 12 grapes - all of them during the last minute of the old year: one grape for every clock tick. It seems tough, but let’s notice that they've been practicing it every year all their lives so they've definitely got into practice 😉

Why do Spanish people swallow grapes and what’s the origin of this tradition? Let’s investigate!

Apparently, there are two theories about the origins of this tradition.

The first theory dates back to 1880s, when the Spanish bourgeois class, imitating the French, started to celebrate New Year's Eve by eating grapes and drinking sparkling wine. Later the custom was adopted by ordinary people celebrating in the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid. As they heard the midnight bells they started mocking the upper class eating grapes.

According to the second theory, because of surplus harvest of white grapes in 1909 in the south of Spain, the price was low. However, the producers found a creative and catchy way to sell the fruit. Since that time grapes are considered as a fruit of good luck.

Now, eating 12 grapes at midnight of the New Year’s eve is a must if you want to have a happy year. 

It is a tradition that began in Spain and was adopted by several Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Colombia.

If you find this tradition worth following, write it in the comments 😊

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-38374437

https://www.clarin.com/gourmet/que-significa-comer-12-uvas-en-ano-nuevo_0_f8VoQK52Z.html

How can someone throw the house out the window?

If you liked my last post about Spanish sayings, I suppose you will be interested in learning more of them. This time let’s focus on two expressions that come from the heart of Spain – Madrid.

De Madrid al cielo

You might have already heard this expression, which means 'from Madrid to heaven,' but you probably don’t know where it comes from. Its origin is unclear. However, there is a mysterious urban legend related to it. It says that the people's souls after death gathered in the Cerro Garabitas located in the Casa de Campo to go up to heaven. On the other hand, another theory says that the phrase was written in one of the Spanish poems. This version seems to be more credible, but I prefer to believe the previous one to be true 😊

Tirar la casa por la ventana

Literally it means ‘throw the house out the window.’ This expression also has its origin in Madrid. It dates back to September 1763, the year in which the Spanish national lottery was established. The winner of the first lottery was so happy he literally threw all his personal belongings out of the window to announce that his life was going to change! The saying has become popular and people still use it every time someone spends a fortune on some occasion.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my article. Feel free to leave a comment and stay tuned for more Spanish related content!

Where on Earth can we hear Spanish?

We all know that Spanish is a widely spread language in the world. Do we really know how powerful it is? Let's find out on which continents and in which countries Spanish is spoken!

Firstly, South America is a continent dominated by the Spanish language. It is an official language in almost all of the countries there except Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname. The Spanish speaking countries of South America are: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The second continent with a significant number of Spanish speakers is North America. Mexico is the country of the biggest number of Spanish speakers in the world. However, in the United States there is also a huge community that speaks Spanish as their first language and as their second language. Some of them live in the territory that was part of Mexico in the past, others are new immigrants. It’s estimated that by 2050 Spanish may become the majority language in the United States!

What is more, relatively small countries from Central America where also Spanish is spoken are: Guatemala ,Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Cuba and Dominican Republic.

Finally, in Europe Spain is the birthplace of Spanish, or rather Castilian, as this language is usually called in Spain. It’s one of several official languages in this country and many of Spanish people are bilingual.

Are there more countries in the world where you can hear the Spanish language? Yes! Did you know that in one African country it is spoken as well? That country is Equatorial Guinea and Spanish is one of the official languages there.

It’s worth underlining that Spanish is getting more and more popular among students who choose it as foreign language to learn. It’s gaining popularity and the number of Spanish speakers is increasing every year. Maybe this is a good reason to start learning it.😊

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Leave a comment if you enjoyed it and stay tuned for more content!

Source of the maps:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/N%26SAmerica-pol.jpg

Pasar la noche en blanco - what does it mean?

‘Yes, I understand, but… What do you mean?’

Have you ever had a problem understanding a Spanish native speaker even though you understood every single word they said? This may be because the Spanish language is extremely rich in idioms. Ok then, what are idioms? Let’s find the definition in a dictionary. The Cambridge Dictionary defines an idiom as:

a group of words used together with a meaning that you cannot guess from the meanings of the separate words.

Idioms are typical for the colloquial language, that’s why they are used in verbal communication so often. Their origin, in some cases, is not clear, but many of them are related to the historical events and culture. Those are often impossible to translate literally into another language. Each of the Spanish-speaking countries has countless sayings. Many of them are used throughout the Spanish-speaking world, while others are understood only in one country.

One of the most frequently used idioms with Spanish origin is the expression:

pasar la noche en blanco,

which in literal translation means ‘spend the night in white,’ but the actual meaning is ‘to have a sleepless night.’ The phrase has its roots in the territory of Spain, where the candidates for knights had to spend the whole night on guard before being sworn in as knights. They wore white tunics symbolizing purity. They could only go to sleep at dawn. Interesting, isn't it? Nowadays people in Spain use this expression when they have a sleepless night. There are two more similar expressions, such as: pasar la noche en vela, with the same origin; and no pegar ojo, which means'not sleep a wink.’ These two sayings are in use not only in Spain, but also in the countries of Latin America.

Ayer pasé la noche en blanco por el ruido de la calle.

More about Spanish expressions soon! Stay tuned!