Underwear Traditions South of the Border

In Mexico and most of Central America, there is an interesting New Year’s tradition. Everyone brings in the new year wearing fresh underwear! I don’t mean clean, I mean brand-new underwear. And odds are that the new underwear are either yellow or red.

Here’s the difference: If someone is wearing yellow underwear, he or she wants to make MONEY in the coming year. On the other cheek, red underwear means the person is hoping to get lucky in LOVE! (This year, most people wore yellow, apparently.)

This is interesting. What if you were at a New Year’s party in Mexico City, and at midnight you jumped up and down and other people saw your underwear? If you had on tightie-whities, would you be a loser? What if you just wore the underwear on your head (left)?

And what about black underwear? Maybe your New Year’s resolution was never to see bacon strips again. If so, that’d be the underwear to wear… under there! (Oh, and FYI, it's impossible to write about underwear and Mexico without using the phrase “south of the border.” Dang it!)

Story here.