How To Say Happy New Year In Spanish and Learning Spanish Vocabulary Words

In this lesson I will teach you how to say Happy New Year in Spanish. I will also tell you how Christmas is celebrated in Colombia while teaching you some new vocabulary words.

This is how you say Happy New Year in Spanish:

"Feliz año nuevo!" But in Colombia they simply say "Feliz año!"

My first year in Colombia I celebrated the Christmas holidays in Barranquilla, Colombia. But every year after that I celebrated the Christmas holidays in Medellin. Barranquilla and Medellin, just like the rest of Latin America, actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, the 24th. HAPPY NEW YEAR QUOTES

Every year, I have a typical Colombian Christmas dinner here: A dinner consisting of "pollo relleno" (stuffed chicken), "buñuelos" (I'd describe these as fried cheese balls), "natilla" (raw sugar pudding).

The only difference between my Christmas dinner in Barranquilla and my the one in Medellin is that my new "novia paisa" (girlfriend from Medellin) cooked the "pollo relleno" from scratch. The pollo relleno that I had on the coast of Colombia was already pre-cooked when purchased from the

"supermercado" and was already stuffed with "carne, aceitunas, y huevos." (meat, olives and eggs).

Being a non-traditionalist, I found myself cooking a couple of non-Colombian dishes for my "paisita" on Christmas Eve. The last time I went to New York I made sure that I bought all the Puerto Rican and Dominican cooking ingredients that I would need to take back here to Medellin to cook some

From New York, I brought back Sazón, Adobo, Cilantro and, of course, Sofrito. I'd describe "Sofrito" as a slightly"picante" (spicy) Puerto Rican tomato sauce.

And with those ingredients, I managed to cook Puerto Rican or Dominican style dishes of "arroz amarillo" (yellow rice) and "habichuelas" (stewed red beans). But in Medellin, the word "habichuelas" means "string beans" and "frijoles" means "beans."

Pat Jackson is the Founder of Learning Spanish Like Crazy - the only learning Spanish method that teaches real authentic everyday conversational Latin American Spanish.