The first time my college roommate saw me digging through my suitcase on December 30th looking specifically for anything yellow, she asked if I was color-blind or just having a crisis. I told her it was for New Year's Eve and she stared at me like I'd said I was going to sacrifice a goat. I had to explain that no, I wasn't being dramatic — my mother had been packing a yellow pair of underwear into my bag every December since I was old enough to dress myself, and I'd never once questioned it.
That conversation stuck with me, because it made me realize how normal this tradition feels inside Latino households and how completely mysterious it looks from outside one. So here's the explanation I never got as a kid, laid out properly.
Why do people wear yellow underwear on New Year's Eve?
Wearing yellow underwear at midnight on New Year's Eve is a good-luck ritual practiced across much of Latin America, meant to attract prosperity, money, and good fortune for the year ahead. In many countries it's paired with a second option — red underwear, worn instead of or alongside yellow, to invite love and romance rather than money.
Where the color-coded underwear tradition comes from
There's no single confirmed inventor of this custom, but most accounts trace it to South America, with Brazil and Peru frequently cited as early adopters, before it spread through trade, migration, and shared media across the wider region.[1] One popular explanation ties the yellow specifically to gold and the sun — colors long associated with wealth and abundance in both Indigenous and Iberian symbolic traditions that blended across the Americas. Red's association with love follows a more universal logic, echoing the color's romantic symbolism in cultures well beyond Latin America. Retailers deserve some credit for the tradition's staying power too: department stores across the region began actively marketing yellow underwear as a New Year's must-buy by the mid-twentieth century, which cemented the custom into something close to an annual shopping ritual as much as a private one.
How the tradition is actually practiced
The core rule is simple — put on yellow (or red) underwear before midnight and be wearing it when the clock strikes twelve. But the details people layer on top of that vary by household. Some insist the underwear has to be a gift from someone else, not something you bought for yourself, to "count." Others say it has to be brand new, never worn before that night. In several countries there's a widely repeated rule that the underwear should be worn inside out, then flipped right-side out exactly at midnight, as an extra symbolic reset. It's common to combine yellow with other New Year's rituals happening in the very same few minutes — the twelve grapes, a walk around the block with a suitcase for travel luck, or throwing a bucket of water out the front door to sweep away the old year.
Regional variation across the region
In Mexico, yellow for money and red for love is the most commonly cited pairing, and it's common to see both colors sold together as New Year's sets in markets every December. In Peru and Bolivia, yellow is heavily favored and tied specifically to gold and prosperity, sometimes joined by green underwear for hope or health, adding a third option less common elsewhere. In Brazil, white is actually the dominant New Year's color for peace, with other colors like yellow (money) and red (passion) layered on as secondary choices rather than the default. In Ecuador and Colombia, yellow remains the most requested color, frequently sold as part of festive gift sets in the final days of December. The common thread is color as a coded wish — it's the specific meaning assigned to each color that shifts from country to country.
Why a private, silly tradition endures
Part of what keeps this custom alive is exactly what confused my roommate — it's low-stakes and a little funny, which makes it easy to keep doing without much ceremony. It doesn't require a special meal or a public gathering, just a five-second decision made alone in your bedroom before you get dressed. That privacy is part of the charm: it's a wish nobody else has to witness for it to count.
If yellow (or red) is already part of your family's New Year's ritual, a few festive pieces can help set the mood for the countdown — explore the Celebrations Collection.
I still pack yellow underwear every December 31st, not because I'm convinced it will change my bank account, but because it's one more small thread connecting me to my mother's kitchen and the version of this tradition she inherited from hers. Some rituals don't need to be proven to be worth keeping.
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[1] Fuente: Newsweek, "What NYE Underwear Color Means and Why the Tradition is Still Important".