Strange New Year traditions around the world

Strange New Year traditions around the world

From great balls of fire, to possums, grape-eating and animal whispering, we reveal the world's weirdest New Year customs.

Great balls of fire, Scotland

In Stonehaven, Scotland, there is a custom of parading through the streets on New Year's Eve while swinging blazing balls of fire around.

The tradition is part of Scotland's Hogmanay celebrations, although its roots trace back to the Vikings.

Graveyard camp, Chile

Locals inTalca, central Chile, like to see in the new year in the company of their dead relatives. Thought to have begun when a family broke in one year to be near their dead father, the town mayor now opens the graveyard after late-night mass and thousands sit surrounded by candles while classical music plays.

Animal whispering, Romania

Farmers try to hear their animals talk in a ritual which, if successful, signifies not just a Doctor Dolittle gift for communicating with our furry relatives but good luck for the coming year.

Mass kissing, Venice

St Mark's Square is known for holding not only a big firework display over the Basin of St. Mark but for something far more unusual, a mass kiss-in in the piazza.

Throwing furniture, South Africa

Look out below! It's the idea of starting the new year afresh that leads residents of Johannesburg, those in Hillsboro in particular, to throw old furniture out of their windows. Italians follow a similar tradition and, not wanting to be lumbered with anything unwanted, conduct an early spring clean by way of their windows.

Underwater tree planting, Siberia

This is the Siberian custom of cutting a hole in the ice covering Lake Baikal and diving to the lake's bottom while carrying a New Year's tree. Note: only professional divers participate.

Bear dances, Romania

People wanting to celebrate new year in Romania put on bear costumes and furs and dance at different houses to keep evil at bay.

Possum-dropping, America

In the town of Brasstown, North Carolina, a possum in a transparent box is lowered over a noisy crowd, in the world's only known "possum-drop". It reflects Brasstown's claim to be "the possum capital of the world".

Grape eating, Spain

Revellers seeing in the new year in Spain have their mouths full when they try to stuff twelve grapes in - one for each chime of the clock during the countdown.

Having a ball, New York

In cities around the world, from Sydney to Amsterdam, the first seconds of the new year are marked by fireworks. But dropping a ball on New Year's Eve is a wholly American tradition to count down the last fleeting moments.

The first ball dropped at midnight on New Year's Eve remains the most famous: the one on top of One Times Square in New York City.

At this New Year's Eve party, 'you shut up'

Here comes 2014! Three! … Two! … Mum.

While hundreds of thousands of revelers cheer, shout and yell in the new year in Times Square, hundreds of New Yorkers will gather not far away to pass the waning hours of 2013 without a word.