New Year

On the last night of the year in Japan, dinner is not a feast. It is a bowl of noodles — humble, steaming, and eaten with intention. As the hours

On the first morning of the new year in Japan, millions of people do the same thing: they bundle up against the January cold and head to a shrine. Not

Canada rings in the new year the way it does most things: outdoors, in the cold, and with remarkable good cheer. On January 1, while much of the world is

At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve in Puerto Rico, the island does something unforgettable: windows fly open, arms swing back, and buckets of water go sailing into

Somewhere in Bolivia, on the night of December 31st, a child is biting carefully into a golden buñuelo — not just for the taste, but because there might be a

At midnight on December 31st in Panama, the old year doesn’t just end — it explodes. Across the country, hand-built effigies called muñecos — stuffed with newspaper, dressed as politicians,

As midnight approaches on December 31st in Venezuela, two things happen in millions of homes at once: everyone changes into brand-new yellow underwear, and someone wheels a packed suitcase to

On the last afternoon of the year in Guayaquil, the streets belong to giants. Towering effigies — superheroes, presidents, cartoon villains, and monsters several meters tall — line the avenues

On the last week of December, the markets of Peru turn yellow. Not metaphorically — literally. Stalls overflow with yellow underwear, yellow hats, yellow shirts, yellow flowers, yellow candles, yellow

At midnight on December 31st, while fireworks crack over the Andes and church bells ring along the Caribbean coast, thousands of Colombians do something that would look completely baffling to

Picture New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aires: it is ten o’clock at night, the temperature is a balmy 75 degrees, and dinner is being served on a terrace under a

Every country has its New Year’s quirks, but Chile has the one that stops conversation cold. In the city of Talca, some 150 miles south of Santiago, thousands of Chileans