The 'sitting under the table' New Year's Eve trend explained

With 2023 approaching, people are looking forward to celebrating the New Year - and people have been sharing one tradition they did this time last year that they have credited for finding love in 2022.

In a plethora of viral videos, many have shared videos of themselves sitting under a table before the stroke of midnight "in the hopes of finding love," and show several photos and videos of their current partner as "proof" that the tradition works.

This is a Latin American custom where single people crawl under a table at midnight for good luck in finding love in the new year, according to San Antonio Express News.

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"It's been almost a year since I went under the table for New Years...," @amyoliveros8 wrote, showing a clip of herself from the moment and then added: "And I met the love of my life," as she then showed her boyfriend in a video that has over 4m views.

"This is your sign everyone," she added.

Meanwhile, @baddienessaaaa gained 3m views in a TikTok where she videoed herself sitting under the table to ring in the new year and showed how it "worked" with videos of her boyfriend.

Given the number of viral videos of people's success stories, single people in the comments expressed how they are keen to try this out in a few days' time.

One person wrote: "Alright I’m going under the table for New Year's."

"You're telling me all I had to do was crawl under a table," another person said.

Someone else joked: "I’m fixing to put a tent and camp under the table."

However, it appears sitting underneath the table to find love has varying degrees of success as it didn't work for some.

One person said: "I went under the table and all I got out of it was 3 failed talking stages."

"Didn’t work for me," another person wrote.

Someone else replied: "It didn’t work for me doing it again this year."

Some have some added steps to the tradition such as eating grapes while sitting under the table or wearing red underwear on December 31.

"Last year, I ate my 12 grapes under the table," @lolkarli wrote, and revealed her relationship then added: "Well, it worked."

TikTok user @alizae.kait documented how last year she "went under the table and wore red underwear for new years," and then revealed she found love after this.

The grape tradition appears to originate from Spain where they kick the New Year off by eating 12 grapes (one for each month) with each of the twelve clock bell strikes and "each grape represents a wish for each of the months of the coming year," according to National Geographic.

Eating the grapes while hiding under the table appears to be a tradition in Peru, say Savoured JourneysandHuffington Post.

Meanwhile wearing red underwear for the New Year is believed "believed to come from China and Vietnam, where wearing red or yellow underwear attracts good energy," as per National Geographic.

Though according to Babel, this is also a tradition in Italy as "wearing red underwear guarantees luck and success for the year ahead."

"From 5 of these videos I have summarized- under the table at 11:59-12:01 eat grapes preferably 12 and wear red.. ok thanks!" one viewer perfectly summed their plans for New Year's Eve.

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