The arrival of a new year is one of the few celebrations shared across much of the world, but the way people welcome it can look remarkably different from one place to another. Some families eat foods believed to symbolize prosperity. Others ring bells, break pomegranates, leap from chairs, carry suitcases through the streets, or gather beside the sea.
Behind many of these customs is the same basic idea: the transition from one year to the next offers an opportunity to leave something behind and begin again. Luck, prosperity, health, travel, friendship, and renewal appear again and again, even when the traditions themselves developed thousands of miles apart.
New Year customs also vary from family to family and region to region, so no single tradition represents everyone in a country. Still, these 15 customs offer a fascinating glimpse at some of the ways people around the world celebrate December 31 and January 1.
🍇 1. Eating 12 Lucky Grapes in Spain
As midnight approaches in Spain, many people prepare exactly 12 grapes. With each stroke of the clock at midnight, they try to eat one grape, finishing all 12 before the chimes end.
Known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or the 12 lucky grapes, the custom associates each grape with one month of the coming year. Successfully eating all of them is traditionally connected with hopes for 12 months of prosperity and good fortune.
Madrid’s Puerta del Sol is one of the most famous places to experience the tradition. Huge crowds gather beneath the square’s clock, while millions of others follow the chimes on television from homes and parties across Spain.
🔔 2. Ringing Temple Bells 108 Times in Japan
New Year’s Eve in Japan is known as Ōmisoka, and one of its most distinctive traditions can be heard at Buddhist temples throughout the country.
During Joya no Kane, temple bells are rung 108 times. In Buddhist tradition, the number is associated with earthly desires and attachments that cause human suffering. Hearing the bells marks a symbolic opportunity to leave those burdens behind as one year gives way to another.
Another familiar Japanese New Year’s Eve custom is eating toshikoshi soba, or “year-crossing noodles.” The long buckwheat noodles are traditionally associated with longevity and moving peacefully from the old year into the new.
🍎 3. Breaking a Pomegranate in Greece
In Greece, the pomegranate has long carried associations with abundance, fertility, and good fortune. That symbolism gives the fruit an important place in some Greek New Year celebrations.
On New Year’s Day, a pomegranate may be broken at the entrance to the home, scattering its many seeds. The abundance of seeds symbolizes the hope that the household will experience an equally abundant year.
Another Greek tradition is Vasilopita, St. Basil’s cake or pie. A coin is hidden inside before the cake is served, and the person who discovers it in their slice is traditionally considered especially fortunate for the year ahead.
🥣 4. Eating Lentils for Prosperity in Italy
Tiny lentils play an outsized role in Italian New Year’s celebrations. Their small, round shape has long been compared with coins, making them a traditional symbol of wealth and prosperity.
Lentils are frequently served alongside cotechino or zampone, rich pork specialties associated with abundance. Depending on the family, lentils may appear with dinner on December 31 or around midnight as the new year begins.
Red also has a special place in Italian New Year’s customs. Wearing something red on New Year’s Eve is traditionally associated with luck, vitality, and prosperity.
🚪 5. First-Footing in Scotland
Scotland’s New Year’s celebration is known as Hogmanay, and its traditions extend far beyond fireworks and parties.
One of the best known is first-footing. After midnight, the first person to enter a home is known as the “first foot” and is traditionally believed to influence the household’s fortunes for the coming year.
Visitors may bring symbolic gifts such as shortbread, whisky, or coal. The custom emphasizes hospitality as much as superstition, with people visiting friends and neighbors after midnight to exchange greetings and good wishes.
Hogmanay is also closely associated with Auld Lang Syne. The song connected with Scottish poet Robert Burns has become one of the world’s most recognizable musical traditions at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
🪑 6. Jumping Into the New Year in Denmark
Just before midnight in Denmark, don’t be surprised to see people climbing onto chairs, sofas, or other raised surfaces.
When midnight arrives, they jump down—quite literally “jumping into” the new year.
The playful custom is associated with entering the coming year on a lucky note. New Year’s Eve celebrations in Denmark also commonly feature kransekage, a distinctive tower-shaped cake made from rings of almond-rich pastry, served with sparkling wine around midnight.
While stories about Danes smashing piles of old dishes against friends’ doors are frequently repeated online, jumping from a chair at midnight is a much more clearly documented modern Danish New Year custom.
🍊 7. Displaying Round Fruits in the Philippines
Fruit takes center stage on many Filipino New Year’s tables.
A traditional Media Noche celebration may include a display of round fruits, whose shapes resemble coins and are therefore associated with prosperity. Twelve varieties are commonly displayed, representing the 12 months of the coming year, although family practices vary.
Oranges, grapes, melons, pomelos, guavas, and other round fruits can all find their way onto the table. Beyond their symbolism, the colorful display helps turn the New Year’s Eve feast into a celebration of abundance.
🔥 8. Burning the Año Viejo in Ecuador
New Year’s Eve in Ecuador can end with a dramatic farewell to the year that has just passed.
People create effigies known as años viejos, or “old years.” The figures may portray celebrities, politicians, fictional characters, family experiences, or memorable events from the previous 12 months.
At the end of December, elaborate examples can be seen in cities including Quito and Guayaquil. At midnight, many effigies are burned, symbolically bringing the old year to an end and making room for a fresh beginning.
Humor and satire are a big part of the tradition, so the figures are not simply solemn symbols of renewal. They can also serve as a playful commentary on the events and personalities people are ready to leave in the past.
🍩 9. Eating Oliebollen in the Netherlands
Few New Year’s traditions sound more comforting than a warm fried pastry covered with powdered sugar.
In the Netherlands, oliebollen are closely associated with the end-of-year season. These round, deep-fried treats are made from a yeasted batter and may contain raisins or currants before being generously dusted with powdered sugar.
Temporary oliebollen stands appear throughout Dutch towns and cities as the year draws to a close, and the pastries are a familiar New Year’s Eve treat.
They are rich, warm, messy, and wonderfully suited to a cold December night.
💦 10. Throwing Water Out the Window in Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, several traditions are associated with clearing away the old year and welcoming the new one.
One particularly memorable custom involves throwing buckets or containers of water out of a window. The practice is traditionally associated with driving away unwanted energy or spirits before the beginning of the new year.
Cleaning the home before New Year’s is another custom based around the idea of beginning fresh. In coastal areas, some celebrants also welcome midnight by entering the ocean or jumping backward into the waves.
Spanish-influenced customs such as eating 12 grapes at midnight can also be part of Puerto Rican celebrations, illustrating how traditions travel, change, and take on new local meanings.
🌊 11. Jumping Seven Waves in Brazil
Brazil’s enormous New Year’s celebration, known as Réveillon, is especially spectacular along the country’s beaches.
White clothing is a familiar sight during the celebrations and is traditionally associated with peace. Along the coast, another custom involves entering the ocean and jumping over seven waves while making wishes or expressing hopes for the year ahead.
These seaside traditions reflect the influence of Afro-Brazilian religious and cultural practices, although people participate for many different personal and spiritual reasons today.
Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach hosts one of the country’s most famous celebrations, where enormous crowds dressed in white gather beside the Atlantic for music, fireworks, and the arrival of the new year.
🔔 12. Ringing the Bosingak Bell in South Korea
In central Seoul, thousands of people traditionally gather near Bosingak Belfry as December 31 draws to a close.
The historic bell once helped regulate daily life in the city during the Joseon period. Today, its best-known ceremony occurs at New Year.
At midnight, the Bosingak bell is rung 33 times to welcome the beginning of the new year. The ceremony has grown into a major public celebration with performances and crowds gathering in the surrounding Jongno district.
For many attendees, the ringing of the bell provides a moment to reflect on the year that has ended and make wishes for the one beginning.
🎶 13. Waltzing at Midnight in Austria
In Austria, midnight can arrive to the unmistakable sound of a waltz.
Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube is traditionally played as the new year begins, and couples may waltz together at parties, public celebrations, and even in the streets.
Vienna turns much of its historic center into a giant celebration during the city’s New Year’s Eve Trail, or Silvesterpfad. Music, food stalls, dancing, and festivities continue through the night.
Austrians also exchange small symbols of good luck for the coming year. Pigs, four-leaf clovers, and chimney sweeps are among the figures commonly associated with New Year’s fortune.
🫘 14. Eating Hoppin’ John in the American South
In the Southern United States, New Year’s Day has its own menu of foods associated with prosperity and luck.
Black-eyed peas are among the best known. They frequently appear in Hoppin’ John, a dish combining peas and rice, traditionally prepared with seasonings and pork.
The dish has deep connections to African and African American foodways. Black-eyed peas were brought to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade and became an important food in the American South.
New Year’s meals may also include collard greens, whose green leaves have come to symbolize money and prosperity, and cornbread. Whether or not anyone believes dinner can determine the year’s fortunes, the meal remains a meaningful part of New Year’s Day for many Southern families.
🧳 15. Walking With a Suitcase in Peru
Anyone hoping for a year filled with travel might appreciate one of Peru’s livelier New Year’s customs.
At midnight, some people take an empty suitcase and walk or run around the block with it. According to the tradition, starting the year with luggage in hand is supposed to encourage travel and adventures during the months ahead.
Peruvian New Year’s celebrations include several other cábalas, or good-luck rituals. Yellow clothing is associated with prosperity, while 12 grapes may be eaten at midnight and lentils carried as symbols of abundance.
The suitcase tradition may not guarantee a plane ticket, but it provides a wonderfully enthusiastic way to begin a year of hoped-for adventures.
✨ A New Year Filled With Possibility
From grapes and lentils to bells, waves, pomegranates, and suitcases, New Year’s traditions reveal just how imaginative people can be when faced with the uncertainty of a new beginning.
Some customs are deeply spiritual. Others are rooted in family tradition, historic beliefs, or simple fun. Many have evolved considerably over time, and celebrations within the same country can vary widely by region, generation, and household.
What connects them is the sense that midnight represents more than the movement of a clock. For a brief moment, the old year is finished and the new one is completely unwritten. Around the world, people mark that moment by gathering together, remembering what has passed, and expressing the universal hope that something good is waiting ahead.
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📚 Sources & Further Reading
- Spain Tourism — New Year’s Eve in Spain
- Japan National Tourism Organization — How to Celebrate New Year Like a Tokyo Local
- Visit Greece — Christmas Holidays in Greece
- Italia.it — New Year Traditions in Italy
- VisitScotland — Hogmanay & New Year in Scotland
- VisitDenmark — New Year’s Eve in Denmark
- Philippine Department of Agriculture — New Year’s Round Fruit Tradition
- Ecuador Travel — Christmas and New Year’s Traditions
- I amsterdam — Holidays and Festivities in the Netherlands
- Discover Puerto Rico — Holiday Traditions in Puerto Rico
- Visit Brasil — New Year’s Eve in Brazil
- Korea Tourism Organization — Bosingak Belfry
- Austria Tourism — New Year’s Celebrations in Austria
- Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — The Historical Legacy of Watch Night
- Peru Travel — Año Nuevo Traditions
