New Year’s Eve is celebrated all over the world. And even though the clock strikes midnight at different times across different time zones, the excitement and celebrations are universal.
Each culture and country has its unique traditions, foods, and ways of ringing in the New Year.
From smashing plates in Denmark to eating 12 grapes at midnight in Spain, keep reading to learn about some of the quirkiest and most interesting New Year’s Eve customs worldwide!
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Spain’s 12 Lucky Grapes
In Spain, it is customary to eat twelve grapes at midnight – one grape for every chime of the clock! People gather in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid to participate in this tradition.
As the clock strikes midnight, they hurriedly pop the grapes into their mouths, one for each toll of the bell.
Eating all twelve grapes before the twelfth chime is said to bring good luck for the twelve months ahead. It takes quick hands and some pre-planning to get those grapes lined up in time!
Denmark’s Broken Plates
In Denmark, a popular New Year’s Eve tradition is smashing plates and glasses against friends’ and neighbors’ front doors.
The number of pieces gathered outside your home on January 1st signifies how many friends you have. So Danes spend the 31st of December smashing away happily.
They save old, unusable plates and dishes just for this purpose. The messy clean-up on New Year’s Day is well worth cementing old friendships and spreading your popularity across your community!
Celebrate New Year’s Eve Party in Times Square.
Ecuador’s Fiery Scarecrow
In Ecuador, New Year’s Eve involves making or buying an effigy – a muñeco Viejo (“old doll” or scarecrow) – and filling it with paper scraps. This effigy is set on fire at midnight to burn away the bad things that happened over the year and make way for new beginnings.
As it burns, people jump over the flames to cleanse themselves of negative energy and bring good luck for the upcoming year. Fireworks and loud music accompany this lively ritual. The charred effigy remains are thrown away with the trash on New Year’s Day.
Japan’s Sacred Bell Ringing
In Japan, New Year’s Eve traditions focus on food, family, worship, and paying respect to the gods. At midnight on December 31st, Buddhist temples all over Japan ring their bells 108 times – a sacred number in Buddhism.
The deep resonating gongs are broadcast on television and radio. With each peal of these enormous bronze bells, worshippers crowd around the temples and shrines to pray for health, happiness, and prosperity in the coming year.
After the chimes fade away, the Japanese end the old year with a bowl of buckwheat noodles called toshikoshi soba (“year-crossing noodles”). The long noodles represent the crossing from one year to the next.
Greece’s Onion Qualities
On New Year’s Eve in Greece, families play a game with onions to predict what the new year might hold for each person.
They take a large onion, cut it into pieces, and assign a name to each piece. The pieces are placed underneath chairs, so each family member sits on an onion slice without knowing which one they got.
Before midnight, each person retrieves their onion piece and examines it to foresee the year ahead. A sturdy, intact onion means good luck. If your onion piece has shriveled up – watch out! That signals bad luck in the coming year. May the best onion win!
Colombia’s Traveling Suitcases
Colombia has a fun tradition of carrying empty suitcases and backpacks around the block at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Colombians believe strolling around their block with empty luggage will bring travel and adventures in the new year.
Children excitedly join their parents, wearing their best clothes and carrying colorful little bags, ready to make a small ceremonial journey around the neighborhood to kick off January full of possibilities and prospects.
Iceland’s Bonsai Bonfires
Fireworks above Perlan Museum in Reykjavik on the New Year’s Eve. Source: Visit Reykjavik
While fireworks light up the winter nights worldwide, Iceland has an exceptionally explosive and vibrant way of bidding the old year farewell on New Year’s Eve. “Brenna” is the Icelandic word for both “bonfire” and “to burn.”
Huge bonfires are lit all over the country, but the bonfires of Reykjavík take pyromania to new heights with their “bonfire towers” made of stacked pallets.
Around 9 pm on December 31st, multiple towers of wood pallets – stacked 15 feet tall or higher – are ceremoniously set ablaze, burning through midnight amid loud music and dazzling fireworks under the stunning Aurora Borealis sky.
Romania’s Ritual Masks
In villages throughout Romania, locals observe a vivid pagan ritual around New Year’s Eve. Young men dress in beastly folk costumes representing goats, horses, bears, or oxen.
Donning hand-carved wooden masks and shaggy animal furs, they dance from house to house in their village to banish evil demons and spirits before the new year dawns.
These rituals derive from old agrarian customs when villagers purify their homes and bring fertility and prosperity to their fields and livestock in the coming seasons. The elaborate costumes and clattering dances look both fascinating and frightening!
Wrapping Up
That covers some of the most exciting ways cultures worldwide celebrate New Year’s Eve! As midnight strikes in each time zone, countries have developed all kinds of customs to transition from the old to the new in their own symbolic (and superstitious!) ways.
Which unique traditions would you most want to see in person or even participate in one day? Let us know in the comments! And wherever you may be for that final countdown, we wish you a very happy and prosperous new year!