What do you plan on doing this year on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? You may spend the evening before the first day of 2014 partying the night away and sipping champagne at midnight, or it may be more important to get in a kiss at that first moment of the new year. Even if you’re planning on spending a quiet evening at home, you’ll probably watch the ball drop on TV or step outside to see a local fireworks show. And New Year’s Day is often spent taking down Christmas decorations, visiting with family, or even cooking certain foods meant to bring luck in the new year. But if you travel to another area of the globe for New Year’s, you may find yourself watching or partaking in some very different traditions.
-
-
Throw Furniture. Planning on visiting Johannesburg, South Africa this New Year’s? If so, you may want to refrain from walking down the streets until the morning of January 1. That’s because you’re liable to be injured by falling furniture or appliances if you’re walking under windows on a residential street on New Year’s Eve. In an attempt to clean out their homes for the new year, furniture and appliances are thrown out the window and on to the street. It’s common for guns and fireworks to be shot out of windows as well.
-
Go in Circles. For a considerably safer New Year’s tradition, travel to the Philippines and celebrate the circle of life in the new year. In the Philippines, literal circles and round objects are used to celebrate the occasion. Locals dress in polka-dotted clothing and fill their tables with round food and fruit. Borrowing a tradition from Spain, grapes are a commonly used round fruit, and the object is to eat twelve of them starting when the clock starts chiming at midnight, and finishing before the clock stops.
-
Find a Husband. It’s in no way uncommon for people to deliberate their relationships and life situations at the start of a new year. What’s interesting about Belarus is that the women there do more than just think about their romantic future; they’ve come up with ways to predict it. Common games include one in which a group of women each has a small pile of corn, which they take turns throwing at a rooster. The first women whose corn is eaten by the rooster will be the first to get married. Another game is for a married women to hide a variety of ordinary items around the house, and have her single friends look for them. The different gifts have different meanings. If you find a ring, your future husband will be handsome, and if it’s bread that you locate, your husband will be rich.
-
Please Like and Share this post!
These are just a few of the fascinating New Year’s traditions around the world. You could also throw dishes in Denmark or commune with the spirits in Mexico. If you’re tired of your same old New Year’s traditions, maybe it’s time to take a trip and experience someone else’s.
New Years Traditions and Superstitions
New Years Lucky Foods
New Years Eve Around the World – It’s 12 O’clock Somewhere
New Years Lucky Foods Menu Ideas
New Years Lucky Food Recipes (on Pinterest)
Embed:
