The same idea in 20 places, grouped by region. Each entry is a short portrait; follow the link for the full tradition.
New year is celebrated at many times: Diwali in Gujarat, Ugadi in Karnataka, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Vishu in Kerala and Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vaisakhi in Punjab. Each has its own food, such as ugadi pachadi with six tastes.
Read: UgadiPohela Boishakh, on 14 April, is marked with colourful processions, the Mangal Shobhajatra in Dhaka, panta bhat and fried fish, and songs under the banyan tree at Ramna. Shopkeepers open a new account book, halkhata, and offer sweets to their customers.
Read: Pohela BoishakhTet Nguyen Dan brings a family reunion, a cleaning of ancestors' graves, banh chung rice cakes, kumquat trees and peach blossoms, and the first visitor is chosen with care. Families also visit pagodas and temples, and the first three days are for visiting relatives, in a set order.
Tet, being writtenSongkran, in mid-April, is a festival of water, with the pouring of water on Buddha images and elders' hands and a joyful water fight in the streets. People visit temples and clean their homes.
Read: SongkranChunjie, the Spring Festival, is the biggest family holiday, with a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, red envelopes, fireworks, lion dances and a visit to relatives. Dumplings and fish are customary.
Chinese New Year, being writtenSeollal is marked with bows to elders, called sebae, and a gift of money, a meal of tteokguk, rice cake soup, and games such as yutnori. Families wear hanbok.
Read: Korean New YearOshogatsu is celebrated with osechi, boxed foods with symbolic meanings, the ringing of 108 bells in Buddhist temples at midnight and the first shrine visit, hatsumode. Otoshidama money is given to children.
Read: Japanese New YearNauryz Meyrami is celebrated on 21 to 23 March, with yurts set up in town squares and a soup of seven ingredients, nauryz kozhe. Games, horse races and song fill the days, and neighbours visit each other to settle old quarrels.
Read: NowruzNowruz, at the spring equinox, is celebrated with the haft-sin table, spring cleaning, jumping over a fire at Chaharshanbe Suri and thirteen days of visiting, ending with a picnic. The thirteenth day, Sizdah Bedar, is spent outdoors with a picnic, and sprouts from the table are thrown into running water.
Read: NowruzRosh Hashanah is celebrated in autumn with the blowing of the shofar, apples dipped in honey and a round challah, and wishes for a sweet year. On the first afternoon many Jews walk to a river or the sea to cast their sins symbolically into the water, in the tashlich rite.
Read: Rosh HashanahYennayer, the Amazigh new year, falls on 12 January and has been a public holiday in Algeria since 2018. Families eat couscous and sweet dishes with dried fruit and nuts, and the day celebrates the heritage of the Berber peoples.
Read: YennayerEnkutatash falls on 11 September, at the end of the rains, with yellow daisies, white dress, and a feast of doro wat. Children sing and give flower paintings.
Read: EnkutatashAt midnight, people eat twelve grapes, one for each stroke of the clock, in the plaza of Puerta del Sol in Madrid, for luck in the coming months. Red underwear is also thought lucky.
Read: Twelve GrapesHogmanay is the Scottish new year, with first-footing, in which a dark-haired man brings coal, whisky and shortbread, a torchlit procession in Edinburgh and the singing of Auld Lang Syne. The street party in Edinburgh draws tens of thousands of people, and the celebrations continue on 2 January, a public holiday.
Read: HogmanaySilvester is celebrated with fireworks, lead pouring to tell fortunes, and a doughnut called a Berliner. Dinner for One is broadcast every year on television.
New Year's Eve, being writtenThe ball drop in Times Square, resolutions, black-eyed peas and greens in the South for luck and kisses at midnight are all part of the American New Year. Many Asian American communities celebrate Lunar New Year.
New Year's Eve, being writtenPeople carry empty suitcases around the block for a year of travel, wear yellow underwear for luck, and burn a scarecrow, the Ano Viejo, representing the old year. At midnight, families eat twelve grapes and write their wishes for the coming year.
New Year's Eve, being writtenOn the beach at Copacabana, millions dress in white, jump seven waves and offer flowers to Iemanja, the sea goddess, for luck. Lentils and grapes are eaten at midnight.
Yemแปja, being writtenFireworks at Sydney Harbour are among the first major displays of the world to welcome the new year, at midsummer, with picnics on the foreshore. Many communities also mark Lunar New Year.
Sydney New Year's Eve, being writtenMatariki, the Maori new year, is marked in June or July with the rising of the Pleiades, the lighting of lamps, remembering those who have died, and a shared meal. Many communities hold a dawn ceremony, and in 2022 the day was made a national public holiday.
Read: MatarikiWritten by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Every week: one tradition from somewhere new, what is being celebrated around the world this week, and one idea explained.