9 New Year’s Superstitions to Kick Off 2024 Right

From devouring grapes as the clock tolls midnight to dragging a suitcase around the block, here are ways people bring a little luck to their new year

Jennifer Ortiz,

AARP

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Published December 27, 2023

twelve grapes on a background of fireworks with text that says happy new years

CARME PARRAMON/Getty/Aleksandr Durnov/Getty

Whether you’re ringing in the new year with a midnight kiss, singing “Auld Lang Syne,” watching fireworks or writing a laundry list of resolutions, when the clock strikes midnight, it’s a moment of transition from old to new.

And when you have transition markers like New Year’s Eve, says Jack Santino, 76, a retired professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, it is often accompanied with ritual, belief and superstition.

“[People] feel that you can do something during the period of transition that will have an effect on the future, on what’s coming,” says Santino, who has also written several books on holidays and ritual and was the former president of the American Folklore Society.

Whether you’re planning to call it an early night or you have a ritual of your own that you wholeheartedly believe or just partake of in jest, these rituals are all about making sure to “mark the occasion, and symbolically open ourselves to new and hopefully more positive experiences,” says Debra Lattanzi Shutika, 59, a folklorist and associate professor at George Mason University.

Rituals can be especially comforting when you’re looking for a way to move on from the past, says Shutika. “We’ve had some pretty tough years … and so the idea is that you want to mark the boundary and say, ‘That horrible year is behind us,’ — or even that mediocre year — and we’re hoping for better things in the year to come.”

AARP spoke to Santino, Shutika and other folklorists and anthropologists to uncover some unique New Year’s rituals and the reasons behind them.

Eating 12 grapes before midnight

At the top of Santino’s mind when discussing New Year’s Eve rituals is one he took part in while visiting Spain: feeding 12 grapes to a partner.

“You would actually place the grape in a partner’s mouth, and we did the 12 [grapes] for the 12 tolling bells,” he says, adding that the longstanding tradition had been commercialized to the point that supermarkets now sell cans of 12 individual grapes in Spain.

This Spanish tradition, practiced in various forms throughout Latin America, supposedly ensures you a year of good luck … if you’re quick enough. Folklore says it may bring you bad luck if you don’t finish on time.

Circular or semicircular foods and items represent coins and money, and in this instance the number of grapes symbolizes “one good wish, one good thing consumed for each month,” says Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby, 62, professor of Russian studies, folklore and linguistics at the University of Kentucky.

Eating black-eyed peas and collard greens

A common traditional food for many African Americans and people in the southern U.S., beans and greens are believed to bring in good luck and money. Historically, black-eyed peas were imported to the American South from West Africa, and slaves in the South would often make dishes that reminded them of home – typically rice and beans. Rouhier-Willoughby says the greens are also associated with the color of paper money and prosperity.

Black-eyed peas made with pork, typically bacon, is called Hoppin’ John. Pork is common in many New Year’s traditions around the world, including many European cultures, says Rouhier-Willoughby, “because it’s a fatty meat, and that represents the richness of the new year … [people] will be well-fed, things will thrive.”

There are also practical reasons for pork, particularly ham, being a mainstay in many holiday dishes: It stores well. As far as agricultural cycles – from which many cultures derive their new year’s calendars – she says, “It can be dried, preserved, and then used during the winter in times when there wasn’t refrigeration.”

Eating sauerkraut and pork on New Year’s Day

Santino says the German-American, Polish and other European influences thrive in Ohio, where he lives and where sauerkraut and pork are typically eaten on New Year’s Day. It’s also a regional tradition in North Central West Virginia, according to Shutika. The tradition is still practiced in parts of Europe. Pork is said to be lucky because pigs “root forward when looking for food,” and sauerkraut is lucky due to its health benefits, according to Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Opening the back and front door at midnight

It may be nippy out there, but in Ireland, this is a common practice to let the old year out and the new one in, says Shutika.

‘The Luck Visit’

Similarly, who you let into your home in the new year can hold meaning. Santino says that in Great Britain, Ireland, Spain and other parts of Southern Europe, the first person who crosses the threshold of your home in the new year is important and can bring good luck, depending on the physical description. Typically, a dark-haired person bearing gifts is a good sign.

Hang an onion on your door

If you are wishing for a baby, take down your holiday wreath and hang an onion instead. This is a common practice in Greece, according to Tom Mould, 54, a professor of anthropology and folklore at Butler University. “The onion was a symbol of fertility, because – as you know – if you leave your onion too long hanging in your cupboard, it sprouts,” says Mould.

Pack your bags … or not

Throughout Latin America, some will tell you to pack your luggage with items for the type of trip you wish to take in the new year. Others, particularly in Colombia, will tell you to walk an empty suitcase around the block a few times to bring forth a year full of travel. It fits a model of belief called sympathetic magic, says Mould. He says it falls under the category of “magic of similarity,” in which “imitating the desired outcome can bring about that outcome.”

Smashing dishes on front doors

In Denmark, smashing plates on your loved ones’ doorsteps isn’t something done in anger on New Year’s Day. You’re actually contributing to their luck. It’s said that the more smashed plates outside your home, the more luck you’ll have in the new year. Rouhier-Willoughby says the tradition falls in line with the new year’s “period of license, where you do things in excess and break all kinds of rules during this transitional period” – whether that’s making noise or destroying things.

A New Year’s kiss

This now mundane tradition supposedly ensures that both parties have good luck, and conversely, not having someone to smooch may predict a year of loneliness. It’s quite common around the world and mostly not a taboo anymore, but this falls under the same vein, says Rouhier-Willoughby. “It would have been breaking a serious rule in the 19th century, for example, doing any kind of public display of affection,” she says.

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Jennifer Ortiz is an associate editor at aarp.org. She previously covered personal finance, careers and other consumer topics as an editor at U.S. News & World Report and was a news writer and editor at WTOP News in Washington, D.C.

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