Which Mexican New Year's Eve tradition uses a suitcase to symbolize travel in the coming year?

Mexico’s suitcase custom involves walking with an empty suitcase to symbolize travel in the coming year.

Some people in Mexico take an empty suitcase outside or walk around the block with it shortly after midnight. The ritual is intended to attract journeys, adventures, or travel during the year ahead. It is a folk custom, so its exact form varies between families, cities, and regions rather than following one official national rule.

Mexican New Year celebrations include many other traditions, such as family meals, fireworks, grapes, and colored clothing associated with different hopes. The suitcase practice is therefore one symbolic action among several, not a replacement for the midnight celebration itself. Similar travel-attracting customs occur elsewhere in Latin America, but the specific image of walking with an empty suitcase is especially familiar in accounts of Mexican New Year folklore.