The weirdest New Year’s Eve customs from around the world

We are only a few hours away from shouting loudly that the old time is gone and triumphantly welcoming 2025. And if in Greece we break the pomegranate and cut the king cake in other parts of the world, some of the customs her stay and on the first day of the new year you say them politely and unusually.

Read more: Makripoulia Mousinas: How are they spending the last day of 2024 in Vietnam?

In Spain for example and in some Latin American countries, at each ringing of the bell at the exact time of the change of the year they eat 12 grapes for prosperity. This tradition dates back to 1909 and is actually one of the first smart marketing moves in the world since it started when winegrowers in Alicante had this idea to sell more grapes after an excellent harvest.

In Japan again the new year comes ringing the bells in the Buddhist temples. 107 times before the change and once with the new year. Thus, they believe they exorcise the 108 human sinful passions – how did they count them? -and they clean up all the bad things they did last year.

But that’s not all they have. They also have Namahage, which reminds a bit of a thriller and not a celebration.

According to the ritual, on New Year’s Eve, young men disguised as demons, the namahage, visit every house in the village demanding to know in loud voices if there is any lazy or misbehaving child living there. Then the parents assure the namahage that there is no bad child in the house and offer them food and drink.
The purpose of this tradition is to encourage young children to obey their parents and behave well, two very important virtues in the strictly structured Japanese society, but judging by the videos we’ve seen of babies crying adorably and non-stop, it went well. this.

Back on European soil any normal person if a bear entered his house would consider himself lucky that it didn’t eat him. But in Romania, since pre-Christian times, tradition says that a bear breaking into a house on New Year’s Eve meant good luck and health. Makes sense. After being saved from the bear, what should they be afraid of?

In this deeply traditional country, New Year’s Eve and the first day of the new year include dances and ceremonies for death and rebirth. Dancers of all ages disguise themselves in woolen wooden costumes-masks as various animals but mainly bears and dance from house to house to drive away the evil spirits that haunted their homes the previous year. May another bear not find us…

A little closer to the apparently strict and rigid Germany, the New Year’s Eve tradition is unconventional with the technocratic image of the official state and is about predicting the immediate future. How will the new year go? And no, they don’t go to witches and fortune-tellers, they become fortune-tellers themselves with the custom called bieigiessen, in simple Greek Molybdomaneia.

All family members melt small pieces of lead in a spoon over a candle and then pour the liquid into cold water. The shapes that will be created in the water “reveal” what the new year will bring. The paper with the interpretations is sold with the spoon and the pieces that will melt in a special package and oh what a surprise, it becomes irresistible.

Going further north, the New Year awakens the Greek temperament in the Danes, since their own tradition has an undeniably strong flavor of Greece. You see in Denmark on New Years, people break dishes in front of a friend or neighbor’s front door. The more broken dishes someone has on their doorstep the next morning, the more friends and good luck they will have in the new year. Rumors that want them to shout OPA and throw a volley have been verified as inaccurate.

And we conclude our tour of the world on the other side of the Atlantic, in Latin America and specifically in Peru with a custom epitome of love and joy. We’re joking, of course, since the inhabitants of the country play wood for the new year… Literally. The famous TAKANAKUY (TAKANAKOYI) New Year’s Eve festival is held for everyone to settle their differences this way before the time changes.
They dress up, decorate and play wood after music and alcohol And after punching and kicking them out, they shake hands, hug and start the new year loved ones…