New Year’s Eve Traditions Around the World In America, on New Year’s Eve, many people are looking to make healthy, wealthy and wise choices for a new way of life as they usher in the new year. Families and friends gather to share a meal. Many stay up late to ring in the New Year with a kiss, a toast and a song. For many Americans, New Year's Eve is a major social holiday where thousands travel to take part in the festivities and ball drop at Times Square in New York City. Other cultures hold unique traditions surrounding the last day of the year. It must be a scary sight for government officials in Ecuador, where people parade around the city carrying scarecrows resembling politicians and cultural icons. At the stroke of midnight, they burn the scarecrows to a crisp to cleanse the new year of everything evil. Yikes! In Brazil, it’s customary to light candles and throw white flowers into the water as an offering for Yemoja, the Queen of the Ocean. Cleansing sigh.
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Mervet Abdou has brought her Egyptian tradition of leaving the old behind and ushering in the new when she came to this country 28 years ago. Leading up to New Year's Eve, Mehmet cleans her entire home. “I want to put the old and dirty behind.” On New Year's Eve, she places clean sheets on her beds, makes sure all the towels are clean and wears clean pajamas. “Everything must be clean,” she said. In Spain, 12 grapes are eaten, each grape at each strike of the bell after midnight in hopes of a year of good fortune and prosperity. Grape consumption started in the 1800s as a way to enrich vine growers at the end of the year and the sweet tradition carried on. In Scotland, New Year's Eve has become so important that there’s even a special name for it: Hogmanay. The tradition of First Footing holds that the first visitor crossing the threshold on New Year’s Day will be a dark-haired man carrying gifts of coal, salt, shortbread and whiskey, all of which contribute to the idea of prosperity and good fortune. The darkhaired man is the antithesis of the Vikings who invaded Scotland in the 8th through 13th centuries. HappeningsPA.com
Italians who hope to conceive wear red underwear to usher in the New Year. In Chile, New Year's Eve Catholic Masses are held in cemeteries so the faithful can sit with their deceased family members and include them in New Year's Eve festivities. In Ireland, it’s customary for a single girl to sleep on a mistletoe. Sleeping with the plant is said to help girls find their future husbands -- if only in their dreams. Polish housewives are known for cleanliness, but on New Year’s Eve, they don’t worry about shiny floors. Some people believe that vacuuming on New Year’s Eve can suck out one’s happiness. However, though the house may be a bit messy, the fridge is full of good food -- a stuffed pantry ensures good fortune for the new year. Back in Pennsylvania, on New Year’s Day, those who are not nursing hangovers and forgetting about resolutions, or just sleeping in, are hoping someone is preparing Pennsylvania’s traditional New Year’s food: pork and sauerkraut. “The first meal of the New Year is a very important one. Whether the superstition is rooted in true belief, a family tradition or just for fun, the foods that are enjoyed on January 1st do hold a certain significance.” H –Christine Fanning
Sources: PA Eats, Best Life
December 2021
