From Japan to Europe, New Year’s Eve is a celebration full of unique traditions. Every culture has its own special way of greeting the old year and welcoming the new one. Today we will fly to 5 different destinations to discover where to celebrate while daydreaming!
Mystical New Year’s Eve: Tokyo
If you are a Godzilla fan, you can’t miss the projection mapping show dedicated to it for his 70th birthday! On the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku you can watch the projection of the show “Godzilla: Attack on Tokyo!”. It’s a huge 100-meter Godzilla destroying the city!
The most important ceremony is the hatsumode. People visit the temple at midnight on the 31st, where the ceremony of the 108 chimes is celebrated, 107 before midnight and the last one at the stroke, like the 108 earthly wishes of the Buddhist faith (joya-no-kane). One of the most magical places to have this experience is the Sensō-ji Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo.
Afterwards, you traditionally watch the first sunrise of the year from above, as dictated by the hatsu-hinode ritual. Odaiba, the city bay, Roppongi Hills and the Tokyo Sky Tree are some of the best spots.
The beginning of the year can then be celebrated at the table with osechi ryori. It’s a series of dishes typical of January 1st and auspicious for the following 12 months.
Sparkling New Year’s Eve: Junkanoo in the Bahamas
Junkanoo is a biennial celebration that is a staple of Bahamian culture. It usually takes place on New Year’s Day, as well as many Saturdays throughout the Summer. The largest Junkanoo celebration takes place on Bay Street in downtown Nassau. However, Bahamians celebrate the tradition across all 16 islands. Locals prepare costumes well in advance to parade through the streets, dancing to the beat of whistles, cowbells, horns, and goatskin drums.
The origin of the festival is unknown, but some believe it originated during the slave era. Loyalists who emigrated to the Bahamas in the late 18th century brought their African slaves with them. The slaves were given three days off during the Christmas season, during which they sang and danced, wearing masks.
Magical New Year’s Eve: under the stars in the Sahara Desert
Romantics, dreamers, this is the right destination for you! Observe the stars immersed in the silence of the Sahara desert, surrounded by sand dunes and bonfires that illuminate the darkness. And in the morning, start the new year in front of a magical sunrise.
Choose Marrakech as your base camp and then head into the Ourika Valley, between the Atlas Mountains dotted with Berber villages, explore the Ouzoud waterfalls, the Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou a group of clay dwellings declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the desert dunes of Erg Chebbi Merzouga or Erg Chigaga, taste Moroccan cuisine. Or head for the coastal villages of Essaouira and Agadir, the Dades Valley and the Kasbah of Ouarzazate, the Ouzoud waterfalls or the Cedar Forest in Azrou inhabited by the “Barbary Macaques”.
Folkloric New Year’s Eve: Edinburgh
The traditional torchlight procession with 20,000 torchbearers on December 29th that goes from the Royal Mile to Calton Hill opens the celebrations with concerts, fireworks and the bonfire of a symbolic Viking ship.
The next day admire the light show and the Night Afore Fiesta, a carnival with music and street events that culminates on December 31st with the Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party, one of the largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in the world with singing, dancing and Scottish beer!
If you want to wait for the new year in a more quiet and solemn way, you can attend the candlelight concert in St Giles’ Cathedral on the Royal Mile. If instead you want to celebrate like a real local, participate in a Ceilidh, a party with traditional Scottish dances and a live band. A dancer will teach you the steps of each dance, so that everyone can participate.
An auspicious ritual for the start of the new year is the Loony Dook, a dip in the icy waters of the Forth Estuary! On January 1st you can also take part in the O’Clock Run, a one-mile race open to all, or the Edinburgh Triathlon around the city.
Tribal New Year: Sydney
The heart of the celebrations is the Opera House, which offers the opportunity to enjoy the fireworks display both inside and outside. Inside, on December 31st, you will attend the “Opera Gala” concert with the most popular arias from classical masterpieces. During the interval, you will have a privileged point of view to admire the fireworks.
Under the Opera House, the Smoke Ceremony is celebrated, in memory of the purification which is followed by a “Welcome to Australia” where the elders of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council symbolically welcome guests to the land of the Gadigal. The celebrations continue with projections on the pylons and light shows that culminate in the Calling Country Fireworks, during which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is revealed through music and dance. The most romantic can watch the fireworks on the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the sea, dining aboard a boat.
Have you chosen your favorite New Year’s Eve? And how will you welcome the arrival of the new year?