New Year’s traditions from around the world

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

From drinking champagne and blowing noisemakers to watching the ball drop and waiting until midnight to kiss a loved one, New Year’s traditions vary from person to person and country to country. Here are just a few New Year’s facts and traditions from across the world.

 

The Times Square Ball Drop
Did you know that the Times Square Ball drop, an event watched by millions each year, began in 1904? It began at a New York Times party after the paper had just moved from Lower Manhattan to a building in Longacre Square at the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue, and Broadway. The square was eventually renamed Times Square by Mayor George McClellan. To celebrate, the paper’s publisher, Adolph S. Ochs, threw a New Year’s Eve celebration with live music and fireworks. The ball drop replaced the fireworks in 1907, inspired by the Western Union Telegraph Company in Lower Manhattan, which did a drop every day at noon.
The New York Times moved out of that building in 1913, but the New Year’s Eve ball drop lived on in the square for much longer. The only time it stopped was for two years during World War II.

 

Kissing at Midnight
Pucker up for the New Year! This tradition is said to come from European folklore. According to the tales, the first person you meet in the new year will set the tone for the rest of your year. If the nature of the encounter is a positive one, you will have a positive year! For couples celebrating, tradition says not taking the time to schedule a smooch does not bode well for the relationship. The kiss is all about strengthening ties in the coming year. For those not in a relationship, tradition says not getting a kiss foreshadows a year of loneliness.

 

A smashing New Year
Something to keep in mind in 2018, save all your chipped and unwanted dishes. In Denmark, people save these worn or useless dishes and throw them at the doors of friend’s homes overnight. Although this may seem like an unfriendly way to ring in the new year, according to the tradition it ultimately measures your good fortune in friends! The more friends you have, the more broken dishes that end up at your door.

 

“Ring in the new year”
Out with the old and in with the new. Year that is. The phrase refers to an old tradition of ringing bells at celebrations. As celebrating the new year became more popular, this tradition was added. The use of bells has long been used to usher in life and give a nice sendoff to death. Ringing in the new year is not unlike ringing in a new life, so find your bells and wait for midnight!

 

New Year’s resolutions
Maybe you vow to be kinder to others, or perhaps you are resolved to be kinder to yourself. Hitting the gym, lower your spending, drink more water, read more books, or try new things are popular resolutions. But where did the idea of making a resolution for the new year start? This tradition, like so many others, has religious origins. The Babylonians made promises to their gods to return borrowed things and pay off their debts, while the Romans began each new year making promises to the god Janus (which is where January comes from).

 

Hogmanay
It’s the Scots word for the last day of the year. It’s possible that the origins of the celebration go back to the winter solstice of the Norse, with some incorporated customs from a Gaelic celebration of Samhain. During Hogmanay there is a custom of “first-footing,” being the first person to cross a threshold of a friend or neighbor, often involving a symbolic gift. Like the kissing tradition, the first-footing is supposed to set your luck for the rest of the year.
However you chose to celebrate, may you have a very happy New Year!