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Just wondering about New Year superstitions worklwide. Please share your country and the superstition.
I'm from Chicago, IL U.S.A.
1. Clean your house and take out all trash or it's bad luck in the new year.
2. Resolve any money problems or they will follow you into the next year.
3. Resolve all arguments.
4. Eat a lavish meal on New Year's Eve in the hopes so that you won't go hungry in the New Year (silly huh).
I was looking for New Year's traditions in France when a similar question was asked on another website. I did a major web search and I can say with confidence that there are absolutely no specific New Year's traditions in France, although I did find something about trading pretzels in Alsace.
I think that Russian wifes bake "pierogi" with different filings: normal, sweet, salty and one with a coin. Then the rest of the family has to pick one ( all looks the same) . Whoever pick a sweet one - will have a good year, full of love; salty = problems and tears, with a coin = prosperity, normal = nothing will happen.
Also whatever you do on January 1-st, you will do it whole year ( so no hard work, quarrel, fighting, money issues etc)
They also think that in New Year you need to wear a new underwear: therefore traditional gift for New Year is underwear.
I think that in Spain and Portugal people eat 12 raisins for good luck.
In Israel they eat an apple filled with honey. German's drop melted lead into cold water and take turns interpreting the results.
In Scotland: it is believed to be lucky for the first person to cross your threshold in the new year to be male, with dark hair, carrying bread, coal and money, he should step in on his right foot. It is said to be a sign your year will be happy prosperous and healthy. If however your first-footer is female, of ill health or look, blond or red-headed, or step in on the left foot or worse still trip on entry, it is interpreted as a coming year of misfortune.
In Japan it is traditional to dress in new clothes at New Year and sit down to a meal of soup, black beans and sea weed which symbolizes happiness. Children received New Year gifts, usually money sealed in special envelopes.
In Denmark broken crockery is stored throughout the year in order to be thrown around the homes of friends. A pile of broken dishes in the garden and on the doorstep is regarded as a sign of having many friends.
Lentils for the Italians symbolize money and good fortune for the year.
In some regions of China, it is said that long noodles represent a long life; however, cutting a long noodle into smaller bits can bring bad luck and a possibly a short life span. A Chinese must never sweep on the first day of the year because that would clear out any good luck.
One of the most famous traditions in the United States is the dropping of the New Year ball in Times Square, New York City, at 11:59 PM. Every year up to a million people gather to watch the ball make its one-minute descent, arriving exactly at midnight, and an estimated one billion watch the event on television.
In the southern U.S., there are traditions about foods that are lucky to eat on New Years Day. Eating black-eyed peas is supposed to bring prosperity in the new year. Another version is that you eat black-eyed peas to bring you coins, and cooked greens for paper money.
Just wondering about New Year superstitions worklwide. Please share your country and the superstition.
I'm from Chicago, IL U.S.A.
1. Clean your house and take out all trash or it's bad luck in the new year.
2. Resolve any money problems or they will follow you into the next year.
3. Resolve all arguments.
4. Eat a lavish meal on New Year's Eve in the hopes so that you won't go hungry in the New Year (silly huh).
Thanks!!!!!
That's interesting - I'm from the US, with Southern roots, and my family had no real New Year's traditions other than deciding whether to eat black eyed peas with or without vinegar, and whether the Christmas tree stays up or is taken down before the 1st. But once I knew a Filipino woman who had traditions similar to yours. Made a big deal of cleaning everything up. Also placed coins all around the apartment (I think on the window sills) as a way of inviting money to come into your life for the new year. And one New Year's eve when we went out, I didn't have enough cash on hand and intended to pay with credit card, and man was she angry because the cost was being rolled over into the next year!
I think in Spain they have one about eating twelve grapes or twelve something. It's not a superstition so much as a tradition.
yep. It's a tradition, you have to eat 12 grapes to the final countdown to the New Year.
Another Spanish tradition is wearing red panties or boxers at the parties held after the New year begins, apparently it gives you luck if you intend to bring someone to your bed that night
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