10 Interesting New Year’s Traditions from Around the World
| December 31, 2018
6. Philippines
Many of the New Year’s traditions in the Philippines are centered around food. The most important element of the celebratory feast takes places in the days before, as people search diligently to find 12 perfectly round fruits to represent the 12 months of the upcoming year. Watermelons, oranges, and pomelo are all popular choices, but the most popular by far are ubas, imported purple grapes. Noodles are cooked to symbolize a long life, but fish and chicken are avoided as people don’t want to be associated with these scavengers for the rest of the year.
As the old year turns to the new, Filipinos bang pots and pans, light off firecrackers, and shoot guns in the air to make a cacophony loud enough to scare off evil spirits.
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