Families around the world have New Year’s Eve traditions, but do you know the origin of some of these traditions? Many of them are steeped in history and cultural beliefs.
A long-standing tradition at midnight on New Year’s Eve is to kiss someone as the clock strikes midnight. This was believed to ward off evil spirts and dates back to European times when kissing was thought to bring good luck and blessings. At the same time, the singing of “Auld Lang Syne” became a tradition around 1929 although the poem was written by Robert burns during the 18th century.
The champagne toast tradition began during the Christian tradition of Eucharist when drinking wine represented the blood of Christ. Wine from the Champagne region of Franch was used at baptisms and soon gained popularity as the drink used to toast the new year.
In 1907, Times Square changed from a massive fireworks show to the dropping of a giant crystal ball. This was because fireworks were banned in New York, leading to the introduction of a 700-pound ball. However, fireworks are still popular as a nod to an Eastern tradition that they ward off evil spirits.
New Year’s resolutions date back to ancient Babylonia when promises were made to the gods in order for the new year to be fruitful. The Romans offered sacrifices and promises to their god, Janus. Christians began using New Year’s Day to reflect on pass mistakes and grievances with a resolve to do better in the new year.
Many people eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, and this is a tradition steeped in Southern history. Black-eyed peas symbolized coins and they are often paired with greens which represent money and cornbread which represent gold. It is believed the practice grew from enslaved people who used black-eyed peas to represent abundance.
Pork is another popular food on New Year’s Day, representing moving forward in the new year. One legend is it is because chickens stretch backward for food while pigs bury their snouts and move forward. Cabbage is believed to bring long life and wealth. New Year’s Eve cake is another popular tradition, usually with a trinket baked inside. The person who gets the trinket is supposed to have good luck for the year.
Other countries also have unique New Year’s traditions, and some may be celebrated here, brought by the ancestors of immigrants who may not even know why they continue to practice them. In Spain, Latin America and Portugal, eating one grape with each clock chime at midnight brings luck for each month.
The black-eyed pea tradition also exists in Italy while many countries eat round foods like cookies or cakes on New Year’s Day to represent prosperity. In the Netherlands, ollebollen, fried dough balls, are eaten for good luck. In Ireland and other countries, banging pots and pans scares evil spirits while in Ecuador, burning dummies that represent bad experiences from the year before purifies the upcoming year. In Puerto Rico, people throw water out the window while in South Africa, they throw furniture to cleanse the home of negativity. In Scotland, if a dark-haired man bringing coal crosses your threshold first in the New Year, your home will have luck throughout the year.
In Brazil, people wear red to represent love, yellow or gold to represent wealth or white for peach on New Year’s Day. Other Latin American countries have people walking around the block with an empty suitcase to invite travel. In Greece, smashing pomegranates represents abundance while in the Philippines, people wear polka dots as they symbolize coins and prosperity.
Other common traditions are opening doors and windows at midnight to let out the old year and welcome the new. Others believe that doing chores like washing hair or laundry on New Year’s Day is bad luck as it “washes away” fortune. In Denmark, they smash plates and old dishes to ward off evil spirits while in Switzerland dropping ice cream on the floor at midnight can bring abundance, good luck and wealth.
In Japan, letters are sent to family and friends. In addition, they wear kimonos, attend outlandish parties, eat Soba noodles and give children small gifts with money inside. Another Greek tradition is to hang an onion on the door or waking up children tapping an onion on their head.
Some traditions carried forward by families are interesting and unusual. Some put money under a tablecloth on Christmas Eve and remove it on January 1 for a prosperous new year. Others believe that whatever you do on New Year’s Day, you will do all year, so they plan the day with friends and family. One post on Reddit had one of the most unique New Year’s Eve traditions.
“One year my then-teenage kids and I were looking for a ball drop on TV and we found this obscure local access channel where some guy at the city TV station dragged a watermelon up on the roof and threw it off into the parking lot at midnight – like his version of a hometown ball drop,” StrangersWithAndi posted in 2023. “For some reason, this struck us all as hilarious and we tried to recreate it off our back deck, but the only round fruit we had in the house to serve as a ball was a dried-up old pomegranate left over from Thanksgiving. We cheered and chucked it off the deck anyway and the squirrels loved it.”
The post continued.
“So, now, every year, we throw a random piece of fruit off the back deck into the woods behind our house at midnight,” the post read. “The weirder the better. It’s become a very beloved and funny tradition.”
No matter what your New Year’s Eve traditions are, we at Milford Times hope you have a very happy and prosperous new year.
