From America to Australia, everyone wants to start the New Year on the right foot. Here are 15 rituals from around the world that are said to ensure a next year full of happiness, prosperity, love and adventure.
1. Latin America // Carry an empty suitcase
In many Latin American countries, New Year’s Eve festivities with a case of passion will put an empty suitcase on the front door (or even drag it around a room in circles or around the block) to evoke the next year full of adventures and travel.
2. Spain // Eat 12 grapes at midnight
Some people drink sparkling wine at midnight on New Year’s Eve, but in Spain (and in some Latin American countries as well) they stick to grapes until the clock has just struck time. They include 12 pieces of fruit (one grape for each midnight shot) to make sure the next 12 months will be filled with luck.
3. Argentina // Eat beans
In Argentina, beans are not only appreciated for their fiber content, but are also considered a lucky New Year’s dish. Eating them just before midnight is said to provide job security for next year, perhaps the most responsible tradition on this list.
4. Belarus // Make a rooster predict your love life
In Belarus, single women seeking lasting love sit in a circle, each with a pile of corn in front of them. A rooster is placed in the center of the circle, and the woman to whom a grain of cereal is made is believed to be the first in the group to marry.
5. China // Clean the house (but look at how you drag dirt)
The Chinese New Year (known as the “Spring Festival”) corresponds to the change of the Chinese lunar-solar calendar and technically is not celebrated until late January to mid-February. But, as in many Western countries, the occasion is marked by numerous traditions and superstitions. A good luck custom is to clean your home from top to bottom as a way to start the previous year. But to ensure that good luck is not accidentally expelled along with bad luck, people sweep the house inside, pick up dirt and throw it through the back door instead of the front one. And during the first two days of the new year, housewives are not supposed to clean their homes, to avoid sweeping away any lingering fortunes.
6. Denmark // Throw broken dishes at your neighbor’s house
Most people throw broken dishes in the trash, but in Denmark they dispose of them in a much more creative way. They save them and, on New Year’s Eve, throw the fragments at the home of their friends and family as a gesture of good luck. (There’s no word on whether they want to volunteer to clean up the mess.) Danes (and Germans) with less poignant personalities (or simply throwing weaker arms) can choose to leave a pile of broken porcelain at the doors .
7. Romania // Perform a ceremonial bear dance
In the region of Moldova, eastern Romania, villagers dress in bear skins and dance up and down the streets to avoid bad luck. The ritual takes place every year, between Christmas and New Year, and comes from an ancient gypsy tradition.
8. South American // Eat black-eyed peas
In the United States, many southern families eat a festive New Year’s Eve dinner with vegetables, pork, and black-eyed peas, a type of legume with a distinctive black spot on the cream-colored shell. It is said that this last dish brings a lot of luck (and whoever finds a coin hidden in the pot to serve the beans will have most of it). No one knows exactly where this tradition came from, but some say it began after the Civil War, when Union soldiers stole all supplies of Confederate food apart from black-eyed peas. (which made them “lucky”). Another theory is that Sephardic Jews — who established Georgia during the 18th century — ate black-eyed peas to sound the new year and brought the tradition with them to America.
9. South Africa // Throw the furniture out the window
In Johannesburg, South Africa, Hillbrow residents throw old furniture out the windows or from balconies. Presumably, this act symbolizes undoing the old for the new and accepting the promise of a new year. (Unfortunately, people have been injured by this practice and the police have been involved, so think twice before imitating it).
10. Estonia // Eat various meals
In Estonia, people eat seven to twelve meals on New Year’s Day to provide them with the strength of seven to twelve men. (Presumably, they take seven to twelve naps induced by eating coma).
11. Finland / Scandinavia // Pour the molten pond into the water
In some Nordic countries, such as Finland, people melt tin horseshoes, then pour the resulting liquid into cold water and see it swirl into a new solid form. It is said that the way it does predicts what kind of year you will have.
12. Brazil // Throw white flowers and gifts into the ocean
Many Brazilians believe that giving gifts to Yemanja, an Afro-Brazilian ocean spirit, New Year’s Eve will give them vitality and strength. They travel to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro and throw white flowers and other offerings into the waves.
13. Ecuador // Burn a scarecrow
At New Year’s Eve festivities in Ecuador, a scarecrow serves as a symbol of the previous year’s poor energy. They burn the effigy of straw to promote a fresh and positive start to the year.
14. Scotland // The first guest of the year brings you gifts
In Scotland, the first person to cross the threshold of your home on New Year’s Eve is required to bring you an assortment of symbolic gifts: a coin, salt, bread, charcoal and whiskey.
15. Philippines // Make a lot of noise
New Year’s Eve is usually turbulent in most cultures, but the people of the Philippines do lots of of noise. To scare away evil spirits, they hit pots and pans, fireworks and even shoot guns into the air.