Traditions have been around since the beginning of time, we as people are accustomed to celebrating traditions throughout the year, however, countries all around the world have their own customs, some may be similar to others, yet each country has their own habitual traditions. According to religion or culture, different holidays are celebrated, but almost every country celebrates New Years, commemorating the end of the year and good fortune for the new one Although a majority of the world celebrates New Years, each country has their own way of ringing it in.

Americans tend to celebrate the New Year by either watching or visiting the ball drop, drinking champagne, and spending time with family and friends. Common traditions throughout the United States include singing Auld Lang Syne to greet the New Year, eating black-eyed peas for good luck, and trying to get the first kiss of the New Year. However, in my family, we would always go skiing for a while, returning home and wait for a meal along with our cousins and friends. We would continue to finish our meal and wait for the ball drop with fake champagne in our hands. Each year, I pride myself on New Year’s resolutions, making goals for the rest of the year that typically never get completed. However, these goals seem to motivate me and Americans all across the country.

New Years in other Countries

Around the world, cultures welcome the change of the calendar with unique New Year’s traditions of their own. Throughout the world, different countries go through different transitions to the New Year. In Spain, it’s customary to eat 12 grapes, when you’re eating the grapes, you're supposed to eat one grape at each stroke of the clock at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Each grape represents good luck for one month of the coming year and you also make wishes with each grape for the coming year. In bigger cities, people gather in main squares to eat their grapes together. I took part in the New Year’s Tradition in my Spanish class and discovered it’s harder than you think to eat all the grapes in just a couple of seconds while thinking of meaningful wishes. In Columbia, they hope for a travel filled New Year, by doing so, residents of Colombia carry empty suitcases around the block. Columbia’s tradition is very significant and important to those of Columbia. In Denmark, the Residents celebrate by throwing plates and glasses against the doors of friends and family, in doing so, they banish bad spirits. They also stand on chairs and leap off of them together at midnight to jump into January and the New Year in hopes of good luck and good fortune. Strangely, in Finland, residents cast molten tin into a container of water in order to predict how the year will go, as they do so, they interpret the shape the metal takes after hardening. After hardening, a heart or ring means a wedding, while a ship predicts travel and a pig declares there will be plenty of food. Continuing in Europe, an onion is hung on the front door of homes on New Year’s Eve in Greece as a symbol of rebirth, and on New Year’s Day, parents wake their children by tapping them on the head with the onion. Onions in Greece symbolize regeneration and health. In Scotland’s New Year’s celebration of Hogmanay, translated to first-footing, is practiced and commemorated across the country, the first person that crosses a threshold of a home in the New Year should carry a significant gift for luck. The Scottish also hold bonfire ceremonies where people parade while swinging giant fireballs on poles to purify and celebrate the coming year. Back to the western hemisphere, Central and South America countries like Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela, it is believed to be lucky to wear special underwear on New Year’s Eve. During their tradition, the most popular colors are red, thought to bring love in the New Year, and yellow, believed to bring money. In different parts of the world, different countries have their own strange, however, proud traditions, as do we. In New Years, there hides symbolism and meaning behind the turning of the New Year, or as most see it, turning of a new leaf, and different countries celebrate that symbolism and meaning in their proud cheerful ways.