New Year traditions around the globe

How time flies. We’re already coming to the end of the first week in the New Year. Let me ask you something. How did you celebrate the New Year? Did you have a party? Or did you go to a mosque or church to pray? Did you begin the New Year with a prayer for yourself or mankind?

We had a birthday party because it just so happens that my sister’s birthday is on 1st January. Other than that, we didn’t really do anything special. Nor does my family have any traditions that we maintain on New Year’s Day.

Many countries, however, do have their New Year traditions. And I’m not talking about ringing in the New Year with a display of fireworks. That’s the norm in most countries. But there are some traditions that are very unique to a specific country and some of them might seem unusual to those from other countries.

For example, eating something specific on New Year’s Day is fairly common in many countries. I recently learnt, for example, that in the Philippines, people should not cook or eat chicken on New Year’s Day. Every other form of meat is permitted except poultry. Spain also has an unusual tradition and that this that at the stroke of midnight, everyone should eat 12 grapes.

Not 11, not 13 but 12 exactly to signify the clock striking 12 at midnight. But those grapes need to be eaten before the clock strikes the 12th time or you will have bad luck throughout the year. The Japanese, on the other hand, eat warm sobha noodles. In the Netherlands, they eat a kind of fried doughnut and in France they eat what is known as gallete des rois, also known as the King’s cake. It’s round with a hole in the middle and resembles a bunt cake.

Some countries eat certain things whilst other countries do unusual things. In Scotland, for example, New Year’s Day has a special name called Hogmanay and a tradition associated with it is called First Footing where, on New Year’s Day, the first person to cross the threshold of your house should be a dark- haired male.

But in some countries, if they’re not eating things then they are either banging things, breaking things, throwing thing or burning things. The Irish, for instance, bang three loaves of bread against the walls and doors of their homes. But it’s not just any old loaf but Christmas bread, baked especially for that purpose.

In Denmark, on the other hand, the tradition is to break old plates. The Danes break old china by throwing them at their neighbours’ doorsteps to let go of all ill-will they might have had in the previous year. And the more broken china there is outside someone’s home, the more luck they will have in the coming year. This might sound like a safety hazard but imagine a fridge being dropped from an upper storey window which is the tradition in Johannesburg. It’s a part of house cleaning where they discard old things and make room for new ones in the New Year. Of course, it’s the most dangerous time of… the year! On a less hazardous level, in Ecuador, people just throw flowers and candles into a nearby lake or ocean.

But then again, the Ecuadorians do have a burning ceremony in which they construct a giant scarecrow and set it alight. The scarecrow is usually designed to resemble an unpopular politician or political figure. One city in India also has a burning ceremony. In Mumbai (formerly Bombay), residents make an effigy of an old man, then light a bonfire and put him on top of it.

America, on the other hand, is famous for the ball drop in Times Square at midnight, preparations for which are done weeks in advance, including a trial run of the confetti drop. Personally, I don’t recall anyone in England doing anything specific for New Year except for hearing Auld Lang Syne being sung in the neighbourhood.

There is, however, one thing I do remember and that is our TV being flooded by holiday adverts because that was when people started planning for their winter holidays, even if it meant going somewhere local. There are plenty of beautiful places to visit across the country so it wasn’t so depressing after all.