Global New Year’s Traditions
As long as I can remember New Year’s Eve was one of my mother’s favorite holidays. She always had the family get together and play games. When midnight approached she would go into the kitchen and pull out all the pots and pans and wooden spoons. Each person was equipped with a pot or pan and a spoon and out the door we would go. We’d dance up and down the street for 10 to 15 minutes. We also enjoy some of her wonderful cooking. It turned out to be an event that everyone looked forward to all year with much anticipation.
All over the world, people celebrate the end of the old year and the arrival of the new one. Many superstitions mark the beginning of the New Year. In the South, it’s good luck to eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.
When you enter a person’s house for the first time in the new year in Scotland, you should bring a lump of coal and a piece of bread so that your friends will be warm and well fed that year. In Spain, eating 12 grapes at the New Year brings good luck for the next 12 month.
Here are a few ideas that you can used to celebrate the New Year:
Good Fortune Tree
Remove the Christmas ornaments from your tree and replace them with small balloons filled with New Years’ wishes. Tie the balloons to the tree with ribbon, being careful not to pop them. You can finish decorating the tree filling the tree with New Years confetti and New Year’s hats. As the New Year rings in, guests can pop the balloons and claim the wishes inside the balloon. This is a great decoration for the New Year and you can continue enjoying you tree well into the New Year.
Noisemakers
These noisemakers are far more entertaining than the ones you can buy in the store! Use a two-litter plastic pop bottle filled with small buttons, dried beans, or pennies. Decorate the outside of each bottle with felt, lace, buttons, ribbons, and bows. The bottled neck makes the handle.
Another idea is to put a few dry beans or small rocks in an empty aluminum pop can and tape the hole shut. Cut a piece of wrapping paper twice as wide as the circumference of the can. Roll the can in the paper, secure with tape, and tie the ends with ribbon.
