While farewelling the past year and welcoming the new is an event loved around the globe, it’s one that can be embraced very differently, depending on where you are. Here’s how you could be spending New Year’s around the world.
Dressing in all-white everything is encouraged in Brazil to help welcome the new year. It’s said to symbolise purity. Not forgetting another key tradition – jumping over seven waves at the stroke of midnight to keep in the good books of Yemanjá, the goddess of the sea.
For the Danes, New Year’s Eve is also a chance to get rid of any old crockery. Tradition has it that throwing old plates at the front doors of friends and family will bring them good luck. The more broken plates that end up at your doorstep the next morning, the better a year you’ll have ahead.
Many nations around the world believe that starting off the new year clean as a whistle will bring you prosperity. But arguably this is true nowhere more than Puerto Rico, where everything must be spotless – inside and outside of the house, car, garden and even on the streets. It’s thought that the way you welcome the new year will be how you’ll continue for the next 365 days.
In rural Romania, the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve see men, women and children gather, dressed in bear pelts that have been handed down through the generations. They dance alongside drummers to help ward away any evil spirits before the year to come.
One of Japan’s long-serving New Year’s Eve traditions is tucking into a steaming bowl of buckwheat noodles before midnight. It’s said to bring prosperity your way. The ritual dates back to the Kamakura period, with each bite through the noodles thought to symbolise a breaking away from the hardships of the past year.
For the Greeks, an onion is not just delicious, but a symbol of growth and rebirth that can bring luck for the year ahead. Which is why it’s traditional in the Mediterranean nation to hang one outside your door – typically this is done after church on New Year’s Day.
Ahead of the clock striking midnight on New Year’s Eve, families in the Philippines traditionally gather 12 round fruits, from oranges to peaches and plums. Why? Their round shape represents a coin (prosperity), with 12 fruits each representing an individual prosperous month of the year to come.
