New Year’s Around the World

In New York City, the Times Square Ball Drop at midnight has been held since 1907. An estimated 1.2 billion people around the world tune in to watch it each New Year’s Eve.

The key to a great new year? The color of the underwear you wear on December 31! Wearing green brings luck. Yellow brings wealth. And red? Love, of course! 

In Ethiopia, the new year begins in September. Children wear white, give yellow flowers, and paint pictures. There is singing and dancing and feasts of doro wot (chicken stew) and injera (flatbread), followed by popcorn and coffee. 

Get your water balloons ready for Songkran, Thailand’s New Year’s festival. Each April, locals throw the world’s biggest water fight to celebrate. It’s great fun—and it represents a fresh start.

Families in China and other countries in Asia celebrate the Lunar New Year, which falls in January or February. They light lanterns and watch people in lion costumes dance in the street. You’ll also see a lot of red, which symbolizes good luck.

On New Year’s Eve, people drop a blob of ice cream on the ground to bring good luck in the new year.

Here’s a sweet tradition that’s popular in Spain and in many Latin American countries. When the clock begins to chime at midnight, gobble down 12 green grapes—one with every chime—to bring luck for each month of the coming year.