New Year’s Traditions and Superstitions

The changing of the year is a time of renewal. It offers the opportunity to say goodbye to the difficulties of the past year and to plea for prosperity in the next. Many traditions accompany the annual calendar swap, and superstition punctuates this time more than any other because — well — who wants to start the year off on the wrong foot! (More on that later.)

The Roots of Ancient Traditions

Celebrations worldwide often begin on New Year’s Eve and involve a social evening of revelry culminating in a countdown to midnight. In the US, the countdown is accompanied by dropping a ball. The nearly century-old tradition in New York City's Times Square was borrowed from a far less flashy time-reporting exercise performed daily for the benefit of sea captains a couple of hundred years ago.

Millions of people watch NYC’s ball drop. Still, in other regions of the country, locally relevant icons are used for a midnight ball-drop such as Nashville’s music note or a giant potato in Boise, Idaho. In Denmark, the Danes do a sort of self-drop by climbing up on chairs and jumping down as the clock’s second-hand hits midnight. Brazilians have a version of this too in which they step down with the right foot, ensuring that they start the year off right.

Speaking of feet, first-foot is an important concept in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and places their immigrants settled. The superstition says that the first person to walk through your door on New Year’s Day will determine your luck for the entire year. If you want good luck, arrange for a dark-haired male to grace the threshold (even if he’s a party guest you shove out the door at 11:59 only to welcome back a minute later). The color of his hair is important because this one originated during the Viking invasion of the region when fair-haired callers were probably not your friends! Of course, why females are unlucky is anyone’s guess.

Making Loud Noises is Global

Ringing in the new year loudly with noisemakers, fireworks and song is popular nearly everywhere. Firing guns in the air was our chosen acknowledgment during Colonial times, and it’s still prevalent in rural areas. Other countries like to ring the year in with a bang too, busting up dinnerware on friends’ doors in Denmark and knocking bread against the walls and doors in Ireland. There’s a ton of church bells ringing all around the world. Raising a cacophony has ancient origins in most cultures because it was believed that evil spirits seem to have a real aversion to noise.

In China, loud noises and bright colors (particularly red) were historically used to scare off Nian — a frightening spirit who once a year would emerge from his cave to terrorize villages — and this is still depicted in Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. Fire is another good way to ward off any malicious spirit, and it doubles as a cleanser. Bonfires, fireball swinging and torch processions symbolize the sun’s return during Scotland’s Hogmanay, with its winter solstice roots. The tradition of singing “Auld Lang Syne” came from Hogmanay as well.

What to Eat for Good Luck

New Year’s Day across the world is calmer. We may visit friends or have a family meal. Foods that look like money or symbolize abundance make for popular New Year’s Day sustenance: pomegranates in Brazil (plentiful seeds), herring in Germany (silvery scales), lentils in the Mediterranean (the oblong coins of Ancient Rome), greens and cornbread in the US (dollars and gold, respectively).

In Appalachia, to be healthy, wealthy and wise in the new year, consume a dish of black-eyed peas, collard greens and hog jowls. Versions of this meal are popular across the South and Midwest. The luck of black-eyed peas may have originated with the post–Civil War South in this country. Enslaved Americans brought the crop with them from Africa, and it was what stood between the Southern population and starvation after the war. German immigrants gave us the pork-eating part, observing that pigs are all forward-motion when they root — the ultimate optimists! On the flip side, don’t eat animals that move backward (lobster) or can fly away (chicken) because they’ll take your luck with them.

They Made Resolutions in Ancient Times

A New Year’s Day tradition worldwide is to make a low-risk commitment to change some aspect of one’s life in the coming year. Making resolutions has ancient origins in most cultures as a focus on accountability. For example, around 2000 BC, the Babylonians celebrated the new year with Akitu — a multiday spring festival. The people would promise the gods to be good citizens and the king in turn had to swear that he had done well by the residents for the prior year. Then he had to remove his regalia and face physical abuse from a high priest until he wept, which was an indicator that the patron deity approved of his continuing his reign.

Crying + Cleaning Can Bring Bad Luck

Folklore suggests that crying on New Year’s Day will give you a year of sorrow. Lower that probability by following the Puerto Rican playbook and tossing a bucket of water (i.e., last year’s sadnesses) out of the window at midnight. Speaking of, it really is important to get all cleaning done on New Year’s Eve and not on New Year’s Day, particularly cleaning with water. You could wash your hair and wash your luck away — clearly not great. But remove last night’s wine stain from your dress, and a family member will die this year. Repercussions for bad laundry habits have never been more serious.

But It's Okay to Take a Swim

On the other hand, water — with its capacity to nourish, change, and cleanse — has always had positive symbolism too. The changing of the year in ancient Egypt aligned with the Nile River’s annual flood. The ritual of baptism was shared by ancient pagans and Christians. The teeth-chattering present-day tradition of the New Year’s Day Swim in Ireland and elsewhere symbolically wash away the previous year’s difficulties and legitimately flushes the body of toxins from the previous night’s revelry — all while setting a hearty intent for the year to come.

TV Traditions

One benefit the modern day has afforded us is the exposure to rituals and superstitions of other cultures. A large portion of the population of Germany watches the British short sketch comedy Dinner for One, airing there on New Year’s Eve annually since 1972. In the US, watching the Rose Parade followed by the Rose Bowl football game is a mandatory tradition for a lot of people.

Much of the ritual surrounding New Year’s Eve is about life housekeeping: Then, New Year’s Day customs are about repopulating your groove with bespoke good fortune — wealth, health, fitness and love. Some superstitions clearly conflict (water or no water), but maybe it’s simply the act of setting the intention that’s important. If you follow the Colombian New Year’s Eve tradition of running an empty suitcase around the block to ensure travel in the coming year — well, you’ve already dug the suitcase out of the closet; may as well plan your trip.