World’s strangest New Year traditions
From swinging fireballs to gobbling grapes, here are the wackiest ways of welcoming the New Year around the world.
What will you be wearing come New Year’s Eve?
Nice dress?
Black tie?
How about nothing but your underwear?
If you lived in parts of South America, it wouldn’t even be a question.
In La Paz, and other spots in Sao Paulo, people don brightly colored underpants to ring in the New Year—red if they’re looking for love, and yellow for money.
No matter what we wear, though, New Year signifies a new beginning.
Flipping open a fresh calendar, is perhaps one of the most universally hopeful acts we humans perform each year.
In many countries, there’s a shared belief that specific actions taken on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day—or at the stroke of midnight when one year becomes the other—can influence the fate of the months ahead.
In the Philippines, wearing polka dots and eating round fruits is supposed to ensure a prosperous new year.
While in Spain, wolfing down handfuls of grapes as the clock strikes 12am is said to have the same effect.
In other countries, New Year’s customs are about driving away the bad spirits of the past year, so that the new one can arrive unsullied and uncorrupted.
The purifying power of fire is often used in such ceremonies.
During the Scottish festival of Hogmanay, for instance, parades of village men swing giant blazing fireballs over their heads as they march through the streets.
While in Panama, effigies of popular celebrities and political figures—called muñecos—are burned on bonfires.
No matter how odd they may seem these customs share an optimism that’s hard not to appreciate.
Out with the old, in with the new.
What New Year traditions does your family have?
