New Year

There is no New Year’s Eve on earth quite like Brazil’s. While the Northern Hemisphere shivers through winter countdowns, Brazil celebrates the turn of the year at the height of

In Mexico, New Year’s Eve is not a spectator sport. When the clock starts counting down on December 31, nobody is standing around passively watching a ball drop. They are

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, in millions of Russian homes, the same small drama plays out. The television shows the Kremlin clock. A piece of paper, a pen, and

Wales greets the New Year unlike anywhere else in Britain. On New Year’s morning, children once processed through their villages carrying strange, beautiful objects: apples impaled on tripods of sticks,

Imagine celebrating New Year’s Eve, recovering for a week, and then doing it all over again — the countdown, the fireworks, the packed squares, the midnight toasts. In Serbia, that

On the evening of January 13, while most of the world has long since packed away its New Year decorations, villages in western Ukraine explode into carnival. Masked bears lumber

Most countries celebrate the New Year for a single night. Romania turns it into a season. From the masked carolers who roam the streets on New Year’s Eve to the

In Estonia, you don’t just eat dinner on New Year’s Eve — you eat seven dinners. Or nine. Or twelve. According to one of Europe’s most delicious traditions, Estonians aim

In Czechia, the future hides inside an apple. After the Christmas Eve dinner — the most important meal of the Czech year — every person at the table takes an

In Poland, New Year’s Eve has its own name — Sylwester — and its own rules. At midnight, champagne corks pop across the country as millions raise a toast and

On New Year’s Eve in Iceland, the whole country burns and blazes its way into January. There is no single official fireworks display in Reykjavík — because there doesn’t need

In Finland, the future arrives in a ladle. Every New Year’s Eve, as the old year winds down, Finnish families gather around the stove for uudenvuodentina — the casting of