A New Year’s Eve Mexican Fiesta in Oshawa 

For the most part, New Year’s Eve played out at the Northern Portugal Cultural Centre (NPCC) in Oshawa the same as it did at hundreds of banquet halls across the GTA—a full house of well-dressed people, too much food, too much drink, lots of dancing and a Champaign toast at midnight. To spice things up the NPCC threw in sombreros, piñatas and tequila—now you have a NYE Mexican Fiesta!  

 Since 2014, the NPCC has been taking their New Year’s Eve guests on an exciting trip around the world. To date, the party organizers, Cristina Galrão & Steve Rocha have made 5 trips including Las Vegas, Midnight in Paris, Bollywood, Polynesia and Mexico. Steve, who also acted as the tour guide, kept everyone entertained with Mexican-themed games which included trivia and a (very funny) Mexican Hat Dance competition, giving away prizes to the winners. After dinner Mexican Folklore Dancers by Diva Diverse took to the dancefloor and put on a show for the guests. 

 As with any good Portuguese festa (Mexican themed or not) food is an important part of the evening. From the appetizers to the midnight seafood buffet everything was perfect—always spectacular and always prepared in-house by a team of volunteers led by Carlos Dias, Maria Araújo, Laurinda Vieira and Carminda Pereira. I tip my sombrero to all the volunteers who worked to make this a successful evening and I’m looking forward to travelling with the NPCC to a new destination for next year’s celebration!