New Year's Traditions

Everyone has holiday traditions. Growing up my families New Year tradition was always lobsters for dinner and lots of dessert including egg nog. Different cultures have different traditions. Some cultures celebrate the New Year at different times of the year. This website has a list of New Year traditions from around the world. http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm

Some traditions that I liked were:

In Australia New Year is a day for outdoor activities such as rodeos, picnic races and surf carnivals. (I like this one because its warm enough on New Years to go surfing...its their summer).

In Austria good luck symbols called Glücksbringer are exchanged. Glucjsbringer's are chocolate and marzipan candies shaped like pigs, gold coins, chimney sweeps, four-leaf clovers, and horseshoes.

In the Netherlands people burn Christmas trees on street bonfires and let off fireworks to ring in the New Year and as a way of driving out the spirits of the old year. (This is way better then throwing out your Christmas tree.)

What family or cultural traditions do you have?