December 31, 2023 New Year’s Eve fell on a Sunday, with the new year falling on a Monday. During this holiday named “New Year’s Eve” many students celebrated by doing lots of different things. Senior Izabel Duran said, “Lit up fireworks and cooked portions for my family, and spent lots of quality time with my family.” Often cooking with family or for family can be used as a way of creating happiness and cheerfulness for a new year. Senior April Beinz said, “I spent my New Year’s day by cleaning around my room and making new resolutions.” It can be important during the new year to keep a clean environment around you so as to wear off any bad luck. Cleanliness before the new year can resemble more good luck and less misfortune.
During this holiday students really took advantage of being able to spend quality time with family, senior Tatiana Bedolla said, “New Year’s Eve was amazing! I spent my time hanging out with my family and catching up with relatives I haven’t seen in months, and eating lots of food! We also played lots of fun games and cracked jokes all day.” For the most part students spent time with their family members and did activities such as “play cup pong together with family.”
For New Year’s there are many traditional things families do together in order to give the year more luck. Some people did things such as eating 12 grapes, or making wishes before 12:00 a.m. and throwing lentils to the floor as a way to bring good luck towards those 12 wishes, or eat candy marzipan pigs. It is always fun to watch the television to see how many people across the world celebrate the new year, such as the ball dropping in the New York city Times Square.
On New Year’s Eve many students enjoyed the seasonal food used during the celebration as well. Senior Juliet Hernandez said, “I ate tamales and tortas.” Typical in the Mexican tradition tamales and tortas are frequently eaten as a food of celebration. Some students had a different and wide variety of food during New Year’s Eve celebration. Senior Izabel Duran said, “I ate Hawaiian macaroni salad, lechon, pancit.” Each student had different dishes they ate during the celebration depending on their culture. Senior Tatiana Bedolla said, “We had a big variety of Mexican cuisines during New Year’s Eve! I ate foods like tamales and pozole, and drank atole and soda. We also had a big charcuterie board filled with cheeses, fruits, etc.” New Year’s Eve was a time for students to spend quality time with families, enjoy meals or snacks, and celebrate.
