Happy New Year! This is perhaps the most common way of ringing in the next year, but is it the only one? It might be the more popular version of welcoming the New Year, but there must be other ways of celebrating the New Year.

The truth is that there are numerous ways that New Year is celebrated across the world! You will be able to find greetings, wishes to make the year special.

  • WHAT ARE THE VARIED TRADITIONS TO MAKE THE YEAR SPECIAL?

When the New Year celebrations come around at the end of each year, you get to party hard and enjoy some time with friends and family. Well, while this is perhaps the most popular tradition of celebrations, different countries celebrate the New Year in various ways. Here are some countries and their traditions:

  1. Japan: The Buddhist monasteries and temples ring their bells 108 times to, literally, ring in the New Year. This is believed to cleanse all the Japanese people of their sins, so that they can start the next year with a clean slate!
  2. Philippines: Circular patterns are considered to be auspicious by the people of Philippines. Hence, on New Year’s Day they all wear clothes with polka dots, eat round fruits like oranges and also spend time tossing coins into pans. These are supposed to bring prosperity in their lives.
  3. Siberia: Apart from the usual, New Year greetings, the people of Russia and Siberia dive into frozen lakes, with a piece of tree trunk. They then place it under the ice!
  4. Singapore: People write down their wishes for the New Year on white spheres. The wishes are hopes that they have for the next year and then the spheres are released on the Singapore River.
  5. Burma: Thingyan festival is a popular tradition of Burmese people. People splash each other with water, to cleanse the soul. It is supposed to cleanse the soul of the people in the festival, so that they can start the next year with a purified soul.
  6. Belarus: New Year traditions involve the unmarried women playing games to determine who will get married next. An example of such a game involves women placing piles of corn in front of them and the pile from which the rooster chooses the corn first is supposed to get married first among them.
  7. Armenia: On New Year’s Day, mothers knead dough to bake bread. This kneading means mixing in love and luck into the dough, which signifies a year filled with happiness and a lot of luck.
  8. Russia: The tradition of welcoming the New Year involves people writing down a wish on paper, burning it and throwing it into a champagne glass. The person then must drink it all before the clock strikes 12:01!
  9. Estonia: Estonians try to eat 7, 9 or 12 times. All these numbers are supposed to be lucky, as it is a sign of prosperity! The more food that they have, it is supposed to bring more food on their plates and pantry.
  10. Greece: They hang onions on the on the front door of the house. It is considered to be a sign of rebirth for the New Year, so the tradition is followed on the eve of New Year’s! Next morning, the parents wake up the children by tapping on the head with that onion.