New Year's Eve is looking a bit different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although travel restrictions may make it impossible to jet off on an exotic vacation, you can still celebrate diverse cultures at home. Discover some foreign New Year's Eve traditions that you can easily adopt below.

What Are New Year's Eve Traditions in Different Countries?

1. Greece

For a Greek New Year's, bake vasilopita, a sweet bread, to eat at midnight. Place a coin into the bread before putting it in the oven; the person who gets a slice with the coin will have a year of good fortune. Another tradition is to hang onions, a symbol of rebirth, in the house.

2. Spain

In Spain, people eat 12 green grapes in the 12 seconds preceding midnight. The practice brings luck for the year to come. However, if you don't finish all your grapes by the time the midnight bells chime, it's bad luck.

3. Japan

If you want a unique New Year's Eve dish, make your own soba noodles. In Japan, people eat this buckwheat noodle dish shortly before midnight. It represents the crossing from one year to the next. There are many delicious ways to prepare soba noodles, for example, with peanut sauce.

4. Turkey

If you don't have the time to whip up Greek bread or Japanese soba noodles, try this simple tradition from Turkey. Sprinkle salt on your doorstep when the clock strikes midnight. This is thought to bring good luck in the year to come and promises prosperity and peace.

5. Italy

When you're planning your New Year's Eve outfit, include some red. According to Italian tradition, wearing red underwear is the best way to ring in the New Year. The color is associated with fertility, and people who are hoping to conceive wear red undergarments for luck.

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