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What Is The Unique New Years Celebration In Montevideo?
By Rodger Bailey
New Years Eve is another of those special events where the standard cultural celebrations I had expected were surpassed by something unique which the people do here in Montevideo, Uruguay. Of course, other Latin American countries have the fireworks in the street at midnight (just like on Christmas). Here in Montevideo, this time of year is also the start of Summer vacation, so fewer folks are in Montevideo by midnight on New Years Eve. Because of this, the fireworks are a little less for New Years Eve than for the Christmas celebration one week before. But, I'm not talking about fireworks as the unique offering the people do here for New Years Eve. The day of the 31st is a half work day (if it falls on Monday through Saturday). So in the morning of that day most folks have to go to work. People who work in offices have very little business to perform on this day, so it is a day of cleaning up, clearing out, and getting ready for the next year's business. And, of course most workers make a party of these activities. Because New Years Day is the start of 2 to 4 weeks of vacation for many employees, there is not much real preparation for the new year's business going on for the 31st. Those who are going away on vacation, are not thinking about business and those who do not get their vacations yet will be in the office to handle whatever limited business activity actually starts in January. When I first saw the unique way that offices actually celebrate on the 31st, I was dumbfounded. I didn't understand it. We lived on the main street in Montevideo in an apartment building which was in a section that was all other tall buildings. About half of the apartments in these buildings were for living and the other half were offices. So this special New Years celebration was happening all around us as we walked on an errand to a nearby store. The first thing I saw as we left our building was that the street was white. Then I noticed that the air was filled with white stuff floating down from the sky. Now, I came from the USA where white stuff floating down on New Years Eve was obviously snow. But, I was in a short sleeve shirt and it was warm outside, so this was obviously not snow. I was not sure what was happening. My wife noticed my disorientation and she told me what the office workers do on December 31st. As part of the cleaning up and clearing out activity for this day, employees take all the pages from their desk calendars and daily agendas from the year that is finishing and run them through the office shredder. Then, they sprinkle these chips and strips of shredded paper out the window of their offices. This takes most of the morning, so there is a contentious flow of these falling pieces of paper to the street for two or three hours. In those parts of the city where business offices are more concentrated, there is a lot more of this 'snow' in the air and on the streets. In less concentrated areas, there is still the falling pieces of paper and some accumulation in the streets and sidewalks. For the office workers, this represents a process of letting go of the past year and a clean sweep of their work spaces. By late afternoon, the street cleaners and the garbage trucks have swarmed to those areas of highest concentration and started cleaning up the mess left by the office workers clearing out their old year.
Rodger Bailey, MS and his wife, Isabel, have been working with children with developmental problems for many years. Their protocols are successful in re-engaging the developmental process for children who have been stuck developmentally and getting them back on track.
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What a lovely custom! I think I shall start shredding my inbox right now. 
 | | nick Jan 3, 2010 13:00 | |
Sounds kinda like a NYC ticker tape parade on steroids...
Keep telling us more about Montevideo. It's famous for having the Graf Spee in the harbor during WWII.
Sounds like a great way to start the new year off stress free...I think we should adopt this custom immediately.
Great sharing of a rather unique custom, Rodger. Many thanks. One thing has me puzzled re New Year's Celebrations Worldwide. With ALL the concern about Global Warming and reducing the Carbon Footprint, etc., why on earth do they continue to have HUGE fireworks displays? Surely, this is doing untold and irreversible damage, and the HUGE cost to put these shows on, would be better directed towards feeding the starving children of the world and/or providing shelter for the homeless people. Food for thought?
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
John: Here, the fireworks display is individual and unregulated. Everyone buys what they want to and can afford, goes out into the street at midnight and shoots off their stash of rockets. They do this on Christmas eve and on New Years Eve. Here is the intel I posted about Christmas Eve Rodger
What a great way to start your summer vacation, plus you get to shred your desk clutter.
Thanks for another fine read.
Frederick
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