Why stick to the usual champagne and fireworks when you can throw a sofa out the window, wear fortune-telling underwear or eat with the dead? Here are 12 of the strangest and wackiest New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world.
Puerto Rico – Water Buckets
Puerto Rico is a New Year’s Eve paradise for party lovers and neat freaks. Before the evening celebrations begin—with all the booze, food, music, firecrackers and fireworks you can handle—Puerto Ricans go on a cleaning spree. They clean their homes, in and out, from top to bottom, to set a clean and organized tone for the year ahead. At midnight, they throw the dirty mop water and other water from buckets, pots and pans out the window or balcony to get rid of negative energy, evil spirits and bad luck.
Italy – Flying Furniture
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a flying toaster! Italians in Naples and nearby cities are into throwing furniture and appliances out of windows and balconies on New Year’s Eve. This wacky and potentially dangerous tradition symbolizes an out-with-the-old gesture to make room for a fresh start in the New Year. To prevent injuries, most locals throw small and soft items, but it’s still a good idea to stay away from windows and balconies in Naples on New Year’s Eve.
Latin America – Magic Underwear
If you’re in Central or South America on New Year’s Eve, make sure you’re wearing the right color underwear when the clock strikes 12. In Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and other countries in the region, the color of your underwear foretells what the New Year will bring to you: red or pink for love, white for peace and harmony, yellow for good fortune and wealth, green or blue for good health. Black, predictably, means bad luck. So choose the right color. Your fate may depend on it.
Denmark – Smashing Plates
The Danish really look out after each other. They smash plates and crockery against their neighbors’ front doors on New Year’s Eve to bring them good luck and prosperity in the coming year. They collect plates throughout the year for this purpose. The bigger the pile of broken plates by someone’s door, the more good luck and friends that person will have in the New Year.
Ecuador – Burning Dummies
Ecuadorians may be pyromaniacs with good intentions. First, they build scarecrow-like dummies—using old clothes, newspaper or sawdust, and masks—to represent prominent politicians and celebrities that influenced the outgoing year. Then, they burn the dummies on New Year’s Eve to get rid of bad luck and attract good luck in the incoming year. Men in drag, representing the widows of the burned, roam the streets begging for money.
Spain – 12 Grapes
This is one of the most famous New Year Eve’s traditions in the world. It’s celebrated in Spain and countries with a strong Spanish influence, such as Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Philippines. The tradition involves eating one grape for every stroke of the clock at midnight. If you eat all 12 grapes before the last stroke, you’ll have good luck and prosperity in the year ahead. The tradition dates back to 1909, when vine growers in Alicante, Spain, came up with this idea in order to sell more grapes after an exceptional harvest.
Germany – Lead Pouring
In some parts of Germany, lead predicts what kind of year people will have. Germans melt small pieces of lead over a candle and pour the molten lead in cold water. Whatever shape forms in the water reveals their fortune in the year ahead. A heart-like shape means love; a crown signifies wealth; a star indicates happiness; a ball means good luck; and a cross predicts death.
Colombia – Suitcase Carrying
Going somewhere? You’d think so on New Year’s Eve in Colombia, when at the struck of midnight people walk or jog in circles while carrying empty suitcases. This weird tradition is supposed to bring travel and adventures in the year ahead. Surely, there’s a better way to travel.
Romania – Dancing, Talking Animals
It’s a zoo on New Year’s Eve in Romania. People dress up in furs and wooden masks depicting bears, goats or horses and dance from house to house to ward off evil spirits and bring health and prosperity to friends and neighbors. According to another bizarre tradition, Romanian farmers talk to their farm animals on New Year’s Eve. If the animals talk back, the farmers will have a prosperous year. That’s a big fail waiting to happen.
Chile – Cemetery Picnic
No, it’s not Halloween on New Year’s Eve in Chile. It’s just the perfect night to have a picnic with your dead loved ones surrounded by graves and scary trees. Booze, food and dead bodies. Not creepy at all.
Japan – 108 Rings
On New Year’s Eve, Japan bells are rang 108 times in a Buddhist tradition that is believed dispel the 108 evil human passions or sins. Typically, the bells ring 107 times before midnight and one time in the New Year. It’s also good luck to be smiling or laughing going into the New Year.
Philippines – Round Things
In the Philippines, New Year’s Eve is about money. Locals surround themselves with circular things—buttons, coins, polka dots, grapes, anything that looks like a coin—to conjure money and wealth in the New Year. Many keep coins in their pockets and jingle them to attract good fortune.
There are other freaky New Year’s Eve traditions, such as bread bashing on walls and doors in Ireland to chase away bad luck and evil spirits, beating each other to a pulp in Peru for a fresh start, and jumping seven waves at midnight on the beach in Brazil for protection during the year ahead. In other words, if you like wacky rituals, you have plenty to choose from this New Year’s Eve.