Aman Tumukur Khanna: The strange customs and traditions of New Year

  The New Year is celebrated with much gaiety, enthusiasm and happiness all over the world, and there are many customs and traditions, even superstitions attached to the celebrations. Some of them are unique and interesting while some of them are rather strange and weird!

  The underlying theme of celebrating the New Year is looking forward to a period of happiness, good fortune, prosperity and good health, and putting behind a time of conflicts, mistakes and worries. Fireworks, music, dancing, parades, and feasting are all common across various cultures and faiths. The one shared belief globally is that specific actions taken on New Year's Day or at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve when one minute merges into the other, greatly influence how the New Year unfolds.