December 31: New Year's Eve Customs

10 New Year's Eve/Hogmanay customs from around the world. Happy New Year.

1. Hogmanay is the word for New Year in Scotland. Traditional foods eaten on this day include bannocks, shortbread, black buns, and ankersocks (a type of Gingerbread). In the Highlands, Cheese was believed to have magical properties. A slice of Christmas cheese was preserved - if it had a hole in it, it was known as the Laomacha. Anyone who lost their way at any time during the following year had only to look through the hole to discover where they were. In the Netherlands the traditional New Year's Eve food is oil-dumpling.
2. “Ringing In the New Year" is a popular saying in the modern world. Welcoming the new year by making lots of noise is a tradition dating back to pagan times. A traditional Hogmanay celebration in Scotland would include rattling pots and pans to see the old year off and welcome the new. Today, people ring bells, blow horns, and rattle rattles. In Wales, people believed the Cwn Annwn, or Underworld Hounds run through the air at midnight looking for victims to carry off. Pots and pans were banged to drive them away. In Germany people would make a lot of noise to keep demons and evil spirits away on this night.
3. Going from house to house to visit your neighbours is a big thing on New Year's Eve in many places. In Scotland, it's called First Footing. In Denmark young people go around pounding on their friends' front doors. They throw shards of pottery, collected throughout the year, against the sides of houses. In Greece children go from door to door singing; traditionally, they carry an Apple, an Orange, a paper ship, a paper star and a green rod from a cornel-tree. They tap family members on the back with the rod for luck. The householders give them treats.
4. On New Year's Eve in the Highlands and Islands they struck the walls of houses with clubs; this was believed to keep fairies and evil spirits away. Houses were decorated with Holly to keep the fairies out. It was believed that if a boy were whipped with holly it meant he would live for as many years as the drops of Blood drawn.
5. It was the tradition to keep the Fire, which was usually put out at night, alight all through New Year's night. Only a friend might approach the sacred blaze. Candles would be kept burning in the house. If the fire went out, it boded ill for the coming year. In some places there were fire festivals, such as Swinging the Fireballs in Stonehaven, Scotland. In Northumberland, New Year's Eve saw the Allendale Baal Fire Festival Tar Barrel Burning, when people walk down the street with blazing tar barrels on their heads; some of which are used to light a bonfire.
6. It's probably mentioning a more modern observance here. 31 December is Check the Smoke Alarms Day, when you should make sure your smoke detectors are working properly. Ideally before the Swinging of the Fireballs.
7. December 31 is St Sylvester’s Day when, if young women looked in the mirror at midnight, they'd see a vision of their future husband. Other customs of the day included weather prediction – whether the following year would be a good one or not depended on the direction the wind was blowing in. In the Tyrol, men dressed as Bears and danced in the streets. Any woman whose shoulder was touched by the revellers would be pregnant within the year.
8. John Wesley introduced the December 31 watchnight service to Methodists; other denominations took it up and it is now a regular service at most churches.
9. At the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve, while holding money in one hand, kneel and pray and you will have money for the rest of the year.
10. In other superstitions, wood cut on either of the last two days of the year will not rot or get woodworm; but it is an unlucky day for a child to be born and, along with the 31^st of any month, an unlucky day to plant anything.