Everyone celebrates differently. Lentils taste…..of Italy, sweet apples with honey cake of Israel, omochi of Japan, whiskey with fruitcake of Scotland. We have had a look around to see how New Year is celebrated in different places. We have included recipes for you to try.

It is not by chance that New Year is a sociable celebration. There is a superstitious reason behind it: eating together with your nearest and dearest actually symbolises protection against demons, who are particularly fond of attacking on this night and bringing their negative influence into the New Year. There should also always be some leftovers from the New Year’s Eve meal to ensure that you will always have enough to eat in the New Year.

Lentils for prosperity
In Italy you cannot celebrate New Year’s Eve without lentils as it is said that they bring wealth and prosperity. In Italy, but also in Spain and Chile, both men and women also wear red underwear on 31 December. This is said to bring luck, especially to lingerie shops.
Our recipe tip: Pasta with lentils

An old German tradition is that you should eat pork or fish on New Year’s Eve. Pork is known to bring luck, and fish represents success because fish are always swimming onwards. Under no circumstances should you cook poultry on 1 January, otherwise your luck will fly away again.

The start of the year is sweet in Israel. Sweet apples with honey cake and a dessert made from carrots are served at the Jewish New Year.
Our recipe tip: Leckach (Israeli honey cake)

Grapes at midnight
The typical Japanese New Year’s Eve meal is actually quite dangerous. Eating omochi, a tough dumpling made from mashed rice, is said to bring a long and happy life. However, this dry rice cake has already cost some people in Japan their lives!

Things are a little easier in Spain and Argentina. In these countries, you have to eat twelve grapes between the first and the last chimes of midnight. Those who do not manage this in time risk having a bad year. In order to play it safe, the Argentineans also tear up paper and throw the shreds out of the window at midnight. This means that they are leaving themselves open for everything that the New Year has in store.

Whiskey and black coal
Now, let’s take a look across the English Channel: On New Year’s Eve in Scotland people wait for a stranger who will bring whiskey fruitcake and a piece of black coal to their home. If he crosses the threshold then the New Year will bring good luck.
Our recipe tip: Black bun

If you want to be one of the first in the world to welcome the New Year then you should celebrate in the Eastern Central Pacific on the Central Polynesian Line Islands (time zone UTC +14) as there the New Year starts at 11 o’clock in the morning Central European Time.

You can celebrate twice in the Arctic Circle. First pop the champagne corks in Aavasaksa in Finland and then take a few steps across the border into Sweden half an hour later to wait for the New Year to begin all over again.