Toasts, resolutions, and kisses on the hour are some of the biggest traditions associated with New Year’s Eve. However, they are just some of many. Here are a few found in the Newspapers.com archive that you might recognize—and some you might not.
New Year’s Tree
This tradition sounds like a creative excuse for keeping your Christmas Tree up past its own holiday. But it actually originated as a separate tradition in countries like Russia and Turkey. It seems there are several ways now to incorporate this tradition into turn-of-the-year festivities.
New Year’s Tree Mon, Jan 3, 1910 – 2 · Montpelier Evening Argus (Montpelier, Vermont, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
This is a more goals-oriented approach: hanging your resolutions from the tree like decorations.
Or you can set it up alongside your Christmas Tree with similar decorations.
Traditions Rooted in the Family Tree
There are also traditions that only appeared in America when they were brought over from much older countries. First-footing is just one example of these, a somewhat superstitious practice that originated in Scotland.
Festive Foods
What holiday would be complete without traditional foods? And there are several to choose from. You can go with a traditional New Year’s Cake originating from the Netherlands:
Or perhaps the 12 grapes tradition of Spain, still widely practiced today:
Or the tradition of eating black-eyed peas, a tradition that hails from the Southern United States:
.There are countless more traditions, big and small, to go along with the passing of the old year into the new. What are some of the more unusual ones you’ve heard of?
Find more like this with a search on Newspapers.com.
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