New Year’s Eve traditions worldwide: 8 quirky traditions for a successful start to the New Year
Berlin, 10 December 2024 — The turn of the year is a global event full of rituals, hopes and curious customs. While some traditions, such as fireworks and sparkling wine, are known worldwide, others surprise with their originality: from eating grapes in Spain and running with suitcases in Mexico to putting poppies in your shoes in Poland – every culture has its own quirky ways of attracting luck, love, and prosperity in the new year. As 2025 approaches, the Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI) has compiled eight unusual New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world that will inspire and amaze you.
New Year’s Eve customs for happiness, health, and love
- Make a wish — In Spain, you get the chance to make twelve wishes for the New Year just before zero o’clock. With each chime of the bell, you have to eat a bunch of grapes and make a wish. Those who fail to do so will unfortunately be pursued by misfortune next year. So be quick with the grapes.
- Poppies and the sea promise more — Brazilians rely on the sea goddess Yemanja in their endeavours to find love. As a gift for her help, a small wooden boat with flowers and sweets is sent out to sea. This is also said to increase fertility for the new year. If you don’t have a sea, you can help yourself to the Polish New Year’s Eve custom and bet on poppies. These are sprinkled in the shoe to help in the search for the right partner. Each poppy seed represents a potential suitor.
- A suitcase full of luck — If you want to travel a lot in the new year, you should grab your suitcase on New Year’s Eve and put it outside the door, like the Mexicans do. Alternatively, to double your chances of travelling luck, you can run around the house with your suitcase already packed.
Into the New Year with financial prosperity
- Eating fish and fish scales for money — fish are a symbol of getting ahead, and New Year’s Eve carp is a popular dish in Germany. But it’s not just eating fish that is said to bring financial luck, the fish scales also guarantee a full wallet. For all vegetarians, there is the “fish from biscuit alternative”. Here, however, you have to pay particular attention to the right way to eat it: First the fin, otherwise the money swims away.
- Lucky pig — We all know the lucky pig, but have you ever heard of eating the pig’s snout for more prosperity? If you eat it, you will be blessed with luck and money. This is a widespread New Year’s Eve tradition in rural Austria.
- Only round things — In the Philippines, the emphasis is on round. From coins as table decorations, round crockery and food to clothing — simply everything. The round shape symbolises money and wealth.
Goodbye legacy and chaos
- Strict laundry ban — Hanging out the washing between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day is forbidden in Germany, unless you want a turbulent new year. According to belief, the stormy god Wotan wanders around with his army of spirits on New Year’s Eve – and can get caught up in the hanging laundry as an uninvited guest.
- Liberation with a shower of paper — Argentinians take spring-cleaning very seriously and shred all the documents and files they no longer need before New Year’s Eve. The scraps of paper are thrown out of the window. In this way, they rid themselves of their old burdens from the past year with colourful paper confetti.
“New Year’s Eve customs are not just cultural traditions, they also fulfil an important psychological safety and comfort: they give people the feeling that they can actively influence their happiness and their future. Rituals such as eating twelve grapes or putting out a suitcase create structure, strengthen confidence, builds resilience and foster a belief in a positive new beginning. Drawing upon Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, such rituals address fundamental psychological desires for safety, belonging, and self-actualization. At an international institution like BSBI, which is attended by students from over 100 countries, we experience on a daily basis how diverse these traditions are and what an important role they play in the formation of identity,” explains Dr Sushma Kumari, Lecturer and Expert on cognitive Psychology at BSBI.
Press contact:
Jessica Carolin Barthel-Jelkmann I jessica.barthel@gusgermany.de