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Next: 31 Dec 2026

New Year's Eve

What you wear at midnight sets the year: white in Brazil, red underwear in Italy, yellow in much of Latin America.

Despite all warnings on fine particulate matter it is still use in Germany to celebrate the onset of the new year with fireworks on New Year's Eve. This holds true also for the year 2018 to come in the small upper Swabia
Photo: Andreas Weith, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The colours of New Year's Eve

Many countries have a colour to wear when the year turns. In Brazil almost everyone on the beaches at midnight is dressed in white. The custom comes from the Afro-Brazilian religions Candomblé and Umbanda, in which white is the colour of peace and of offerings to Iemanjá, the goddess of the sea, and white flowers are thrown into the waves for her. In Italy and Spain the tradition is new red underwear, for luck and love. In Mexico, Colombia, Peru and their neighbours, underwear is yellow for money and luck, or red for love. In the Philippines people wear polka dots, because round shapes look like coins. Everywhere the night ends in fireworks of gold and silver.

#FFFFFFRéveillon whiteWorn in Brazil for peace and for Iemanjá.
#D0021BLucky redUnderwear for love and luck in Italy and Spain.
#FFD60ALucky yellowUnderwear for money in Latin America.
#E6B325Firework goldMidnight fireworks.

Values are fair approximations, not official shades.

Read about the colours

WhiteBrazil’s midnight colour.RedLove and luck.YellowMoney and luck.
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "New Year's Eve" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

The weekly palette

Every Monday: seven colours you may not know, what the world is wearing this week, and one idea about colour.