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How to Do the New Year Money-in-the-Shoe Ritual, From Right-Step Variants to Feng Shui’s Left Shoe

Reporters frame the practice as a meaningful custom without scientific validation.

Overview

  • Many guides instruct placing a banknote in the right shoe just before midnight, then taking the first step with the right foot to invite prosperity.
  • Feng Shui-focused advice favors the left shoe as the receptive side, interpreting the gesture as walking toward opportunities.
  • Sources recommend a clean, intact bill inserted minutes before the countdown, with some keeping it through the toast or overnight.
  • The custom appears across Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia, with some versions adding a house key to signal hopes of a new home.
  • Coverage situates the bill-in-shoe step alongside lentils, 12 grapes, colored underwear and the burning of the Año Viejo as part of a wider New Year ritual repertoire.