New Year!

people save all of their unused dishes and plates until the 31st of December when they affectionately shatter them against the doors of all their friends and family. It is more like popularity contest where bigger pile of broken china indicates more friends and more good luck in the new year. Another custom in Denmark is the jumping off chairs at midnight, symbolising the leap into the New Year when the clock strikes 12. IN ECUADOR, people celebrate the New Year by burning paper filled scarecrows at midnight, along with photographs from the year gone by in the name of good fortune. This tradition possibly originated in Guayaquil in 1895 when a yellow fever epidemic hit the town, and coffins packed with clothes of the deceased were burnt for purification. In Panama, the New Year’s tradition for good luck is burning effigies of everyone and anyone famous IN SPAIN, the New Year’s tradition revolves around eating grapes, which supposedly brings prosperity. The tradition is to eat 12 grapes (one for every month), at each bell strike at midnight.The favoured way is to take a bite, then swallow the grape halves whole. The tradition dates back to 1909 when vine growers in Alicante came up with this idea in order to sell more grapes after an exceptional harvest.