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Odd but Awesome is our way of giving you completely random fun facts.
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By Nic
The ancient Babylonians were the first to make New Year’s resolutions, in order to please the gods.
The tradition of the ball dropping in Times Square began in 1904, when the New York Times moved to the square and the neighborhood was renamed. They held an annual party with fireworks, which were changed to the ball drop when the city banned fireworks.
Paul Revere, J. Edgar Hoover, Lorenzo de Medici, Betsy Ross, and Pope Alexander VI were all born on January 1st.
In Spain, it is customary to eat 12 grapes quickly on New Year’s Eve, each supposedly granting good luck for one month of the coming year.
There is a longtime Finnish tradition of casting molten
tin into water on New Year’s Eve. The shapes the tin forms into are then interpreted into events coming in the next year.
In Panama, it is a New Year’s Eve tradition to burn images of famous people, and everyone from television characters to political figures are included.
Because round shapes symbolize coins and therefore wealth and prosperity in the Philippines, many families display heaps of rounded fruit on New Year’s Eve.
In Denmark, many people stand on chairs and then jump off of them simultaneously at midnight. Leaping is said to banish evil spirits for the year ahead.
In Estonia, men traditionally try to eat 7 times on New Year’s Eve, so that they will supposedly have the strength of 7 men in the year ahead.
It is considered lucky in Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia to wear special underpants on New Year’s Eve.
Sources: History.com, TravelandLeisure.com
