Carefree into the new year

Every year in December, residents of Colombian neighbourhoods collect old clothes. They make human-sized dolls out of them, the so-called Año Viejos. These dolls symbolise everything bad that happened in the past year.

In 2020, many Año Viejos looked like Colombian President Iván Duque, who was widely criticised for his Corona policy. Over the Christmas period, you see the dolls sitting in front of the houses, usually with a bottle of aguardiente, an aniseed liquor, in their arms.

And when midnight strikes on New Year's Eve, there are countless bonfires and the dolls are tossed into the flames. That's how you make room for a fresh start into the new year.

As told to Gundula Haage