• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result
Home In Focus: Panama

New Year’s Eve In Panama

Ringing In The New Year Panamanian Style

Peg Fairbairn by Peg Fairbairn
Dec 31, 2021
in In Focus: Panama
0 0
0
Burning of scarecrow at New Year’s Eve

Adobe Stock/olga355

341
SHARES
4.6k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Depending on your perspective, New Year’s Eve celebrations in Panama are either loathsome or lovable.

I take the latter point of view, despite the very real perils of the holiday for relative newbies to the country.

Case In Point, Dec. 31, 2014

It was our first New Year’s Eve in Panama, and we wanted to make it a memorable one. We had hoped for a show, and we were not disappointed. After a day at the beach and a nice dinner, we wandered into the main town square a few minutes before midnight, parked ourselves on a park bench, and waited for a countdown.

Where did I think I was? Times Square? The countdown never came. But just before midnight, a couple of elaborate floats drifted into view blaring salsa music and bearing lovely young ladies in skimpy outfits waving enthusiastically and swinging their hips to the beat.

Before we even had a chance to admire their skill and rhythm, men on both sides of us were lighting bricks of firecrackers the size of bread loaves and tossing them to the ground all around us. Others had rockets, lighting them as fast as they could.

Within minutes, the square looked like something out of a firefight from the film “Apocalypse Now.” And this went on for an hour…

The fireworks in Las Tablas, 2014
The fireworks in Las Tablas, 2014

Even more astounding was that people—mainly teens and young men—were running toward this mayhem instead of away from it. They were darting in and out of the chaos with glee, seemingly oblivious to the burning embers floating everywhere and smoke so thick that some of the young ladies on the floats were holding handkerchiefs over their face.

Once we got over the shock of the initial assault on our senses, it was good fun. The experience left us all with a slight ringing in our ears that lasted for hours afterward, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Get Your Free Panama Report Today!

Simply enter your email address below and we'll send you our FREE REPORT - 101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.

The New Year’s Effigies

Fireworks on New Year’s Eve is not an exclusively Panamanian phenomenon (one encounters it almost everywhere in Latin America), but there is another tradition here that seems to be unique. As I drove around the Veraguas province where we live recently, I noticed more and more life-sized effigies popping up in front of people’s houses.

These are scarecrow-like creations, often with the same straw hats worn by campesinos and tattered old blue jeans and shirts stuffed with leaves or grass. The heads are often of papier-mâché and hand-painted. Sometimes they crudely resemble public figures or celebrities.

Life-sized effigie
The muñecos seem to litter rural Panama

These dummies are called muñecos, and they begin to appear in rural areas of western Panama in late December. I haven’t been able to figure out how and why the tradition evolved (if you have any clues, please let me know), but the practice is something akin to good-luck rituals like kissing your mate at midnight or eating black-eyed peas early on New Year’s Day (which we do back in Texas).

To bury any bad memories from the previous year, rural Panamanians make a muñeco that reminds them of those memories and then proceed to burn the doll at the stroke of midnight (more mischievous folks stuff them full of fireworks and blow them to smithereens before burning the remains) in order to start the new year off on the right foot.

The most amusing muñecos are crafted to look like particularly reviled public figures—politicians… aggressive local police officers… hated sports figures… even ex-husbands or ex-wives. Particularly elaborate ones often feature props or hand-written speech bubbles giving clues to the muñeco’s identity.

The same public figures ridiculed by these muñecos seem to take it all in good stride. I’ve heard that local politicians in Chame even give out awards to the best muñecos each year. As a result, the tradition there has become something of an arms race.

Reports in the Panamanian press that I was able to suss out online say that some people spend as much as US$500 on their muñeco in a quest to win the coveted annual prize. Some even hire ringers to make professional-grade faces for their muñecos that are often a pretty good representation of the person being roasted.

Life-sized effigie
A part of 2021 ready to be left behind…

This year our muñeco will not take on a human form but that of a well-known virus. At the stroke of midnight, we will open our front door to let out 2021 and welcome in 2022 as our COVID-19 embers burn.

Happy New Year!

Peg Fairbairn
Panama Insider

Tags: Effigieslive in PanamaMove to PanamamuñecosNew YearNew Year in PanamaNew Years Eve PanamaPanamaretire in panama
Share148Tweet81
Peg Fairbairn

Peg Fairbairn

Peg Fairbairn, a former middle school science teacher, is the author of In Focus: Panama, a weekly newsletter published by Access Panama and Live and Invest Overseas.

Related Posts

Beautiful scenery of the waves of the ocean moving towards the shore in Santa Catalina, Panama
In Focus: Panama

The Best Unspoiled Beaches In Panama Compared

by Rebecca Teeters
March 22, 2023
0

The waves roll in over white-sand beaches as palm trees sway overhead… The sun shines down on you as the...

Read more
Horizontal view of coast and beach of Isla Taboga, Panama City, Panama

Cerrito Tropical In Taboga, Panama: An Expat’s Success Story

February 16, 2023
Palm trees, sea and houses in Isla Grande shore. Colon province, Panama 

A Beach Adventure In Panama To Start 2023

January 5, 2023
Typical foods eaten for Christmas and New Year Eve in Panama

Christmas Eve Dinner In Panama: A Rundown For Expats

December 22, 2022
Christmas Holiday Scene in Panama City, Panama

Celebrating A Palm Tree Christmas In Panama

December 8, 2022
Girl from El Cuarto Rojo doing aerial suspension

Panama’s Art Scene Is Being Disrupted. Here’s All About It

November 10, 2022
Man surfing in Playa Venao, Panama

Panama’s 6 Top Spots For Surfing

November 4, 2022

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas ...

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Get Your Free Panama Report Today!

​​Simply enter your email address below and we'll send you our FREE REPORT - 101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.
 

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2023

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Download your FREE report on

The Best Places To Retire In 2023

New Year, New You, New Life Overseas

Sign up for FREE and learn how to live the good life on a modest budget, find bargain property, and more. Plus, check out our free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE.

RETIRE OVERSEAS AND LIVE LIKE ROYALTY

Get Your Free Panama Report Today!
 

​​Learn more about ​​​PANAMA and other countries in our free, daily Overseas Opportunity Letter​​, as well as our ​In Focus: ​Panama ​newsletter​​​​​​. Simply enter your email address below and we’ll send you our FREE REPORT – ​​​101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.