Setting: Two friends, Lucas (the rational thinker) and Rafaela (the superstitious believer), are sitting on the beach in Rio de Janeiro on December 31st, sipping coconut water and watching the crowd gather for the New Year’s Eve celebration.
Rafaela: (gazing at the ocean) Look at everyone, Lucas! So many people in white. It’s beautiful, right?
Lucas: Sure, it’s a sea of peace… and polyester. But I still don’t get why you always insist I wear white every year. I feel like a walking tablecloth.
Rafaela: Lucas! Don’t joke about it. Wearing white brings peace and calm energy for the new year. Everyone in Brazil knows that. It’s tradition!
Lucas: I know it’s tradition. But wearing white doesn’t magically make your year peaceful. If that were true, wouldn’t everyone who wore white last year have had the perfect 2024?
Rafaela: Well… not perfect, but better than it could have been! I wore white and I didn’t get COVID even once!
Lucas: That’s probably because you’re vaccinated and used hand sanitizer like a maniac. Remember when you sprayed your own credit card?
Rafaela: (laughs) Okay, maybe that helped too. But what’s the harm in following a tradition that makes you feel good? I like starting the year with hope.
Lucas: I get that. Hope is good. But wearing white for peace is like eating grapes for wealth or jumping seven waves to get lucky in love—it’s symbolic, not scientific. It’s more psychology than prophecy.
Rafaela: So you’re saying it’s all in my head?
Lucas: Kind of. But that’s not a bad thing. There’s a name for it—the placebo effect. If doing something makes you believe things will go better, sometimes they actually do. But not because of the action itself—because of how your mindset changes.
Rafaela: Hmm. Like my aunt Marina. She wears red every year for passion and still ends up arguing with her cat.
Lucas: Exactly! Color doesn’t control fate. But if wearing white makes you feel calm, you’re more likely to act calmly. That’s the real power—your brain, not your outfit.
Rafaela: (teasing) Says the man who wore neon green last year and spent January recovering from food poisoning.
Lucas: Hey! That was because I trusted your cousin’s shrimp salad. That has nothing to do with fashion choices and everything to do with bad refrigeration.
Rafaela: (smirking) Maybe if you’d worn white, the spirits would’ve warned you…
Lucas: Or maybe if I had worn a thermometer, I’d have noticed the shrimp was sweating.
Rafaela: (laughs, then sighs) You always have a scientific comeback. But I like believing in these things. They connect me to something bigger—family, culture, hope. Even if it’s not “proven,” it feels… grounding.
Lucas: That’s fair. Traditions do connect us. Just promise me one thing?
Rafaela: What?
Lucas: Promise you won’t refuse a job interview just because it’s on a “bad luck day,” or dump someone just because a wave didn’t hit your ankle evenly.
Rafaela: (grinning) Fine. Deal. But you have to promise to wear white tonight. Just a shirt. No neon.
Lucas: (sighs dramatically) Ugh, fine. But I’m doing it for you—not for the spirits.
Rafaela: They’ll take what they can get. Happy almost New Year, Lucas.
Lucas: Happy almost New Year, Raf. May 2025 bring you peace, passion, and shrimp-free parties.
[They clink their coconuts together as fireworks begin to light up the sky.]
Science Vs Superstition 
Tell Us What You Think