The arrival of a new year is celebrated across every culture and continent, each with customs that reflect local history, beliefs, and hopes for the future. In Spain, it is tradition to eat 12 grapes at midnight, one for each chime of the clock, with each grape representing good luck for one month of the coming year. The tradition began in 1895 when grape growers in Alicante promoted it to sell a surplus harvest, and it has since become an iconic Spanish New Year ritual.

In Denmark, people throw unused plates and glasses against the doors of friends and family to banish bad spirits. A large pile of broken dishes on your doorstep on January 1 is a sign of a wide circle of loyal friends. In Scotland, the tradition of "first-footing" holds that the first person to cross your threshold after midnight should be a tall, dark-haired man carrying gifts of coal, bread, salt, and whisky to ensure prosperity for the household.

In Brazil, millions gather on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro wearing white for peace and good luck. Revelers jump seven waves at midnight while making seven wishes, and offerings of flowers and candles are set into the ocean for Yemanja, the goddess of the sea. In Japan, Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times at midnight in a ceremony called "joya no kane," representing the 108 earthly desires that cause human suffering according to Buddhist belief.

The earliest recorded New Year celebrations date back about 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. The Babylonians held an 11-day festival called Akitu that began with the first new moon after the spring equinox in late March. During the festival, they crowned a new king or reaffirmed loyalty to the current ruler, and made promises to the gods that served as a precursor to modern New Year resolutions.

January 1 became the start of the new year in 46 BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. The month of January was named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, depicted with two faces: one looking back at the old year and one looking forward to the new. However, during the Middle Ages, Christian leaders briefly replaced January 1 with dates of greater religious significance such as December 25 and March 25.

The famous Times Square ball drop in New York City began in 1907 when the New York Times organized the event to celebrate the newspaper's new headquarters. The first ball was made of iron and wood, weighed 700 pounds, and was adorned with 100 light bulbs. Today's Waterford Crystal ball weighs nearly 12,000 pounds, features 2,688 crystal triangles, and is illuminated by 32,256 LED lights. An estimated one billion people worldwide watch the ball drop each year.