What are folks in other countries doing New Year’s Eve?

While all cultures have their own New Year’s Eve traditions, it looks like there are more in Japan than anywhere else in the world.

And they have to do with two (important!) things. Luck and longevity.

Bamboo and pine — used to make decorations — are hung at the front door of homes and said to be symbols of good fortune.

The same with tangerines and rice cakes.

But the most popular tradition happens on New Year’s Eve. And that’s to eat thin, long buckwheat noodles called soba.

There are even special restaurants in Japan that specialize in New Year’s Eve soba noodle dinners. The long noodles are eaten to ensure a long life. And you have to make sure you’ve polished off your bowl of soba before midnight so it will work!

In Greece, the New Year’s Eve custom is to hang an onion on the door, and then to wake the children for church in the morning by tapping them on the head with it!

The tradition in Denmark starts out good enough, with a big cone-shaped cake, but ends with breaking dishes on your friend’s doorsteps.

And in Estonia, people there eat all night long. It’s “said” that each meal will give you that much more strength the next year. (Or maybe enough indigestion to last the whole year!)

But whatever you do to ring in the new year, I hope you enjoy it as much as noodles, onions and broken dishes!

Sources:
“Japanese new year preparations” Shizuko Mishima, about travel, gojapan.about.com