Can you believe the new year is almost here? New Year’s Eve is a very special occasion all over the world. It’s a time for people to gather and celebrate with friends and family with the hope of having a prosperous year ahead. While certain celebratory New Year customs like fireworks, champagne and counting down to midnight are celebrated in most countries, certain parts of the world have unique customs which aim to bring luck into the new year. Expat Explore has put together a list of some of our favourite traditions around the world!
Try these New Year’s traditions for a prosperous year ahead:
Eat grapes in Spain
In Spain, it is customary to eat precisely 12 grapes at midnight for good luck. This tradition dates back to the 1800s when vine growers in the Alicante area implemented this lucky practice as a means of selling more grapes! However, it is still practiced today to bring some sweetness into the new year. Enjoy these grapes at home or in one of Spain’s main city centres. It is particularly popular in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol which sees many people gather for grapes every year!
Related: Find out more fun facts about beautiful Spain here!
Empty suitcases in Colombia
This is a New Year’s tradition that is very close to our wandering hearts! In Colombia, people walk around the block carrying around empty suitcases on New Year’s Eve. This symbolises a year filled with travel. We highly recommend visualising your next Expat Explore tour while taking your New Year’s Eve stroll!
Hogmanay and first footing in Scotland
Hogmanay is the name given to the last day of the old year in Scotland and is now known as a time of great celebration. It encompasses a wide range of festivities, usually in the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. Look forward to the traditional torch procession, an awesome street party, Ceilidh dances and plenty of fireworks! You can read all about these fabulous festivities in our Hogmanay blog post.
Another Scottish New Year’s tradition is the “first footing”. On New Year’s Day, friends and family cross the thresholds into each other’s homes with a gift. The first person to cross the threshold will give you a gift representative of the year to come. Legend has it that, to ensure good luck, a dark-haired male should be the first to cross the threshold!
Related: These annual events in Scotland are not to be missed!
Break dishes in Denmark
When you think of breaking plates in the name of celebration, Greece may be the first place that comes to mind. However, this custom is actually common in Denmark too, especially on New Year’s Eve! Danish people throw plates and other crockery at their friends and family’s front doors for good luck. The more broken dishes you find outside your home, the more luck you’ll apparently have in the new year!
Related: Explore Denmark over the festive season on our Best of Scandinavia & the Baltics Christmas & New Year tour!
Coloured underwear
In quite a few parts of the world it is customary to wear a certain colour of underwear to usher in the new year. In Italy, red underwear is said to bring love, luck and success for the year ahead. If you want to follow this tradition in the old-fashioned way, your New Year’s Eve underwear should be thrown out the next day! Red is also a lucky colour for underwear in Spain and China (although the Chinese New Year does not fall on 1 January).
Yellow is a very popular colour to don under your clothes in many countries in South America. Yellow signifies wealth and prosperity. For some extra luck and an extra boost to your bank account, wear that yellow underwear inside out! In Brazil, white underwear is commonly worn on New Year’s Eve as a symbol of happiness, serenity and re-birth.
Dress up as bears in Romania
Certainly one of the most unique New Year’s traditions, the Bear Dance in Romania is a fascinating custom. Every year between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the Bear Dance sees Romanian men and women of all ages dressing up in real bear skins and dancing to pan flutes and drums. This elaborate parade is performed to ward off evil spirits going into the new year.
The bears are accompanied by singing bear tamers and act out various scenes. One crucial scene portrays a bear dying and being resurrected. This is because bears symbolise death and rebirth. This whole ceremony is no easy feat for the performers who, aside from learning difficult choreography, need to manage the weight of the bear costumes – some of which weigh up to 50kg!
Which New Year’s tradition will you be trying out or sticking to this year? Let us know in the comments!
What better way to usher in the New Year than while travelling? Experience these traditions and many more by booking one of our Christmas and New Year tours for 2024!