FROM DECEMBER 31 to January 1, New Year’s is widely celebrated following the Gregorian calendar. Across different time zones worldwide, people count down the seconds to midnight and welcome a happy new year. While many of these celebrations share common conventions, like staying up past midnight or the boom of fireworks in major cities to welcome the new year, countries around the world have unique traditions to celebrate and ensure a lucky and prosperous year. 

The United States

   New Year’s in the United States is commonly celebrated with friends and significant others. The New York City Times Square Ball Drop is a popular event, with over 200,000 people attending in person and about 25.5 million viewing on television[1]. If not at home watching the NYC Ball Drop, people will go out to parties dressed in fancy cocktail dresses on New Year’s Eve. At midnight, it is common to kiss a significant other to celebrate moving into the new year together; champagne and sparkling wines are served and fireworks light up the sky. 

   On New Year’s Day, certain foods are eaten to ensure a prosperous year. Pork is eaten to represent good luck because pigs scrounge around with their snouts in a forward motion, just like we want to move forward in the new year, not backward[2]. Personally, my family always stewed a large variety of pork cuts such as ribs, pork chops, tenderloins, and sausages in sauerkraut for our New Year’s meal; it was a tradition we started after having the pork cooked similarly at a New Year’s party with family friends. Furthermore, for wealth, black-eyed peas are eaten to represent coins, greens such as collards, kale, or cabbage are eaten to represent dollars, and cornbread is eaten to represent gold. In addition to these popular conventions, regional traditions are also celebrated across the United States. In New Orleans, people buy king cakes with a toy baby Jesus baked into it—whoever receives the piece of cake with the toy will have a lucky and prosperous year. In the Northwest, fish such as salmon or herring are eaten for luck.

Mexico

   Mexico’s New Year’s Eve celebration is called Nochevieja and translates to “old night.” A popular New Year’s tradition in Mexico is to eat twelve grapes at midnight. Each grape represents a month and whether the first grape is sweet or sour determines how good the year will be—a sweet grape means it will be a lucky year, while a sour one spells trouble. There are other superstitions as well, for example: wearing certain colored underwear will bring what the wearer what they wish for in the new year. Red underwear is typically worn to find love, whereas yellow underwear is worn for wealth. There is also a superstition that those who enjoy traveling may take an empty suitcase for a walk outside their house in the hope that this will bring them future travels. 

   For dinner on New Year’s Day, different things are eaten. In an interview with The Yonsei Annals, Valeria Delacruz (Soph., UIC, Intl. Studies) explained, “We eat pozole throughout December, especially on holidays such as El Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe[3], Christmas Eve, and New Year’s.” Pozole is a traditional native Aztec soup made of hominy corn and meat, eaten for its significance to Mexican culture. Another regional dish eaten for New Year’s is bacalao, a salted dried codfish dish that is often served as a stew with chiles and green olives[4]; this dish is more likely to be served near the coast. Other common dishes enjoyed on New Year’s Day include a fried dough dessert called buñuelos, cornmeal tamales, and a spiced fruit punch beverage called ponche. There is also a post-New Year celebration the next morning called El Recalentado, which translates to “the reheating.” Elaborating on this celebration, Delacruz added, “During this time, the family will gather again to eat breakfast, give and receive hugs, and congratulate people on beginning a new year.”

Greece

   In Greece, Christmas is celebrated from Christmas Eve until January 6. Because of this, some Greek Christmas traditions occur during the New Year’s holiday. On New Year’s Eve in Greece, Agios Vassilis, also known as the Greek Santa Claus or St. Basil, brings gifts to the children. Agios Vassilis is the forefather of the Greek Orthodox Church and was well known for his generosity towards the poor and underprivileged. In addition to welcoming the new year, St. Basil’s Day is also celebrated on January 1. Children leave their shoes by the fireplace for St. Basil to fill with gifts, and a large feast is prepared. Vasilopita, or St. Basil’s Bread, is also made, and is baked with a coin or trinket that will foretell the luckiest person in the New Year[5]. Kali Hera is another tradition on New Year’s Day where close family members give money to the children for good luck.

   To celebrate New Year’s properly in Greece, people will also smash a pomegranate on their front door. The tradition varies slightly from village to village with some people smashing the pomegranate at midnight. But in the Greek Orthodox tradition, families go to church on New Year’s Day and will bring the pomegranate to be blessed first. Then the father of the family will bring the pomegranate home to smash it on the front door to wish the household good health, prosperity, and fertility. The more seeds that spill out of the fruit the better, and anyone stained by the juice will be especially lucky in the new year. 

Japan

   Bonenkai, translating to “forget the year” parties, are the first New Year’s traditions to arrive in Japan and are celebrated throughout late December. Friends or co-workers often have these parties to drink and forget about all the troubles they experienced throughout the previous year. At bonenkai parties, foods like Japanese hot pot, sashimi, grilled chicken, and fried chicken are served with alcoholic beverages[6].

   For the New Year’s Eve and Day celebrations, people often celebrate with their families. Toshikoshi soba noodles, which translates to “entering the new year,” are served on New Year’s Eve to bring longevity. On New Year’s Day, osechi-ryori, a New Year’s feast, is served in stacked boxes similar to a bento box. The ingredients and dishes served in the boxes for osechi can be different depending on people’s preferences, and these dishes are shared among the whole family. In an interview with the Annals, Mahiro Iizuka (Soph., Dept. of German Studies, Sophia Univ.) said, “My family always made sure to include shrimp as we hoped to live until our backs are bent, kuromame[7] to wish for a healthy life, and kazunoko[8] for descendants’ prosperity in our osechi.” The osechi also represents the hope for continuous happiness and wealth to bless the family[9]. Families will also visit shrines and temples on New Year’s, and at midnight, bells are rung to signify the start of the new year.

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   No matter where in the world, New Year’s signifies a fresh start for people. It is the perfect time to set goals and make resolutions to accomplish in the following 365 days. The future is promising and, through these traditions, people hope that the coming year will be better than the last. 

[1] Times Square NYC

[2] The Morning Call

[3] El Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe: A Catholic holiday celebrated on December 12 honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe

[4] Mexperience

[5] Web-Holidays

[6] Favy

[7] Kuromame: Simmered black soybeans

[8] Kazunoko: Seasoned herring roe

[9] Just One Cookbook