December 20, 2024 Reading time: 8 Minutes Confiserie-Stories
New Year's Eve around the globe
This is the time when people all over the world say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new. Let's do our homework and cultivate a few good old New Year traditions.A look around the world shows: This could be fun!
In this post:
Toasting with sparkling wine or champagne, lead pouring, fireworks and, of course, our beloved lucky pig: Most of us are probably familiar with New Year's Eve traditions in Germany.
But elsewhere, too, the New Year is traditionally welcomed with celebrations and rituals. So why not try something new? It certainly can't hurt to give your luck a little boost.
And even if we 'don't actually believe in them', rituals are still something wonderful. They create togetherness, mark special moments... and who knows, maybe there is something to it after all?!
So let's generously invite luck to us this year, for example with a little New Year's trip around the world.
Ready to go?
Then off to Ecuador: Into the fire with all the evil of the world!
'Año viejo', old year, is what Ecuadorians call the last day of the year, when they ritually consign the bad things of the past to the flames. They make huge dolls out of old clothes and fill them with sawdust and paper. At midnight, a huge fire is lit and the 'monigotes' go up in flames. The evil of the old year has come to an end!Speaking of traveling: In Colombia, the suitcases are (not) packed.
This one is for the travel-enthusiastic: in Colombia, it is customary to walk around the block with an empty suitcase at midnight.This brings good luck and promises many wonderful trips in the new year. We think that's a good outlook.
Something healthy: 12 grapes for New Year in Spain
In Spain, people don't toast at midnight, they chew diligently. Because every time the New Year's Eve bells strike, a grape has to be eaten. If you manage to do this, you can look forward to 12 months of happiness and wealth. But be careful: anyone who still has grapes in their mouth after the last bell has rung is said to be unlucky in the new year. So it's better to choose seedless grapes and wait until midnight. Because only then does the magic work.Attention, only for professionals: fireballs and metal rods in Scotland.
Things get spectacular in Scotland at the New Year's festival Hogmanay. Many customs from pre-Christian times have been adopted here. An extraordinary spectacle takes place in Stonehaven near Aberdeen, for example: Here, large fireballs are swung in a circle on long metal poles. Weighing up to 10 kilograms, they symbolize the sun, which defeats evil in the dark winter night.
New Year's tradition in Denmark: A jump into the New Year!
In Brazil, it is traditional to go to the beach at midnight for the New Year and jump over seven small waves.A wish is made with each jump. As this is far too cold for us in this country, we prefer to look to Denmark.
There, at the stroke of midnight, people simply jump off a chair or a table into the new year.
This brings good luck for the next twelve months - and it's fun too.
Peru: with potatoes under the sofa.
This custom is sure to meet with a warm welcome in Germany, as it involves the potato. It originally comes from South America, more precisely from the Andes. So it is hardly surprising that it is the subject of this custom in Peru:Under an armchair or sofa, three potatoes are placed - one unpeeled, one half-peeled and one fully peeled. At midnight, one of the three is pulled out 'blind': The unpeeled potato promises a good year with money blessings, the half-peeled potato a normal year and the peeled potato a year with money worries.
Show your colors: Red in Italy and Spain, white in Brazil.
The color of clothing is also an issue in many countries on New Year's Eve and is anything but incidental. In Italy and Spain, for example, many women wear red underwear at the turn of the year as a lucky charm for the new year; in Brazil, on the other hand, people dress in white on New Year's Eve - for a clean start, so to speak.
Oh yes, and one more thing:
When a man turns up at the door in the middle of the night on New Year's Eve with raisin bread, a bottle of whiskey and a lump of coal:
absolutely invite him in and let him join the party!
Because he brings good luck.
Moreover, he has traveled quite far, as this tradition, like the fireballs, originates from Scotland.