From Times Square to your own home, there are plenty of fun New Year’s traditions you might want to try out this year. Whether you’re looking for something a little different or just want to make your own New Year ritual a bit more fun, there’s plenty of things you can try out. Read below for some great ideas.
Resolutions
A staple of most people’s New Year’s traditions, whether uttered silently to yourself, announced to a whole room of people or shouted into the sky at the stroke of midnight, resolutions can be hard to keep. Think about last year’s resolutions and what worked and what didn’t. Maybe you’ll want to make the same resolution, but vow you’ll do it better this time.
Dress Up
Go all out, bring out the cocktail dresses and suits. Start the year looking your best. Traditionally there are lots of examples in history of people dressing up on New Year’s Eve, be it the Scots wearing cow hides or Roman women wearing amulets. As it became more of a celebration rather than a special occasion, people started wearing their best attire.
New Year Photos
Take a photo of you and your friends, family or just one of yourself. It’ll be fun looking back on the photos in the years to come to see how things have changed for you and the people you care about.
New Year’s Food
There are lots of traditional meals or snacks to mark the moment. In Mexico and Spain, they believe that eating 12 grapes will bring you good fortune for the 12 months ahead. Anything ring-shaped — cakes, doughnuts, crepes — symbolizes things coming full circle. Eating pork is also seen as good luck in many different countries. Black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread are more than a tradition for Southerners. Peas represent pennies, greens for dollars and cornbread for gold and speak to the hope of prosperity in the coming year. Create your own tradition — have a midnight BBQ, eat your favorite food, especially if it’s something you’re planning to give up with your resolution.
Midnight Countdown
Count it down. Those last ten seconds before the clock strikes midnight is the last ten seconds of the year, so make sure you count loud for each one. Share the moment with the traditional midnight kiss alongside all the rest of the fanfare.
A Toast
Sparkling wine is the go-to drink to toast the moment on New Year’s Eve but you could try out some other traditional drinks instead. Mulled wine, Wassail, which is a cider-like punch, or even whiskey. Traditionally in Scotland, people believe that the first guest after midnight must bring something like whiskey. This is seen as a token of good fortune for the rest of the year. If you want to try out a radically different type of toast you can emulate a Russian tradition, in which they write their hopes and wishes on paper, burn that paper and pour small portions of the ashes into the sparkling wine they drink right after midnight.
Make Lots of Noise
Ring in the New Year by banging drums, blowing horns, cheering, shouting, setting off fireworks or even beating the walls of your home with a loaf of bread. The latter is an Irish tradition, but the idea behind all of them is the same, it’s about warding off evil spirits and bad luck.
Auld Lang Syne
This traditional Scottish song is awash with a nostalgic feeling and is traditionally sung at the turning of the New Year, alongside other moments of transition. It might be worth learning the lyrics this year, unless you’re comfortable with mumbling along confidently.
Reminisce
Take a moment out of the evening to share the highlights of the year and your hopes for the next one; this is just something to do with a group of people you’re close with. Like the Russian tradition, you can even write out your regrets or wishes and burn the paper, just without drinking the ashes this time.
Run, Dive or Swim into The New Year
Enter the new year in motion and take that momentum with you for the year ahead. Find a run, organize one yourself or just get your friends or family and run during the countdown. A polar bear plunge, New Year’s dive or swim is another way to celebrate the new year. Just be careful with freezing water temperatures.
There are so many weird and wonderful New Year’s Eve traditions from all over the globe. If you’re looking for a fun change this year or just want to add something new take something from the list above. Or just be inspired and make your own personal tradition, which most people have on some level. How about sharing some of your own traditions in a comment below? We’d love to hear what fun traditions our readers have, you might even give someone else a great idea.
With a background in psychology and sociology, love of football, literature, travel and music, Aonghus had always tried to be trendy, but then the trends changed.
