Feature: Argentineans welcome new year with typical ways

by Juan Manuel Nievas

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- While those in the northern hemisphere associate Christmas and New Year with snow, cozy fires, hot drinks and winter sports, the holiday in south of the equator looks and tastes very different.

Sociologist Josefina de Rosa, 33, told Xinhua that "Christmas is a more family-centered celebration, with religious ties," while the New Year is more rooted global celebration.

On the New Year Eve, each person attending the family gathering will traditionally bring their family's signature dish, a "recipe that has been handed down from one generation to the next," she said.

"We eat cold dishes, due to the high temperatures," said De Rosa, though Argentineans also incorporate classic holiday fare, such as dried fruit, nougat and baked food like panettone.

"There are lots of fireworks, and after midnight, neighbors go out onto the sidewalks to watch them," though that tradition has been curbed in recent years "due to greater awareness of the impact (of the explosions) on babies, children with disabilities, and pets," said De Rosa.

Julia Berti, 30, a chemical engineer, living in Mar de Plata, a resort town located 400 km southeast of the capital Buenos Aires, said her family's New Year dinner always includes "roasted suckling pig, all kinds of salads, stuffed chicken and vitel tone," a cold dish typically served in the country on both Christmas and New Year.

Vitel tone, which takes its name from the original Italian vitello tonnato, basically meaning meat with tuna added to it, features sliced veal in a mayonnaise sauce flavored with tuna and anchovy.

Berti has adopted the habit of wearing white for the occasion, "a recent custom imported from Brazil," and embraced by many Argentine families, especially the women, she said.

Representing peace and purity, the color seems apt for welcoming a new year and a new beginning, "clean and (ready) to receive the best energy," said Berti.

Matias Carugati, chief economist at consulting firm Management & Fit (M&F), told Xinhua, "if in 2016 the economy influenced politics, in 2017 it will be the other way around."

He predicted "in 2017, midterm legislative elections will take center stage."

Retiree Susana Guerrero, 67, said she will welcome the New Year with a special wish. "We deserve to take off as a country, to have peace, dialogue and tranquility for the well being of all."