New Year’s Eve is one of the oldest, most deeply rooted celebrations in Italian culture, but not everyone knows the reason behind some of the (elaborate) traditions that characterize it. In this post, we have gathered some customs and stories related to the last day of the year. It’s an exploration that will also reveal some surprising facts!

The New Year’s Eve celebration in Italy has deep roots that reach, and obviously so, into Roman culture. During the Republican era, January 1st (from Janus, the two-faced Roman god who looked both to the past and to the future) was considered a working day. At this time, however, gifts were still offered to friends in the form of a vase filled with honey with dates and dried figs: dates and dried figs, let’s remember, still show up today in Christmas baskets or on laden holiday tables (though less commonly so…).

Italy’s New Year’s Eve tradition begins precisely with that ancient celebration, which also taught us to use decorative wreaths made of leaves – once they were simple laurel branches, today they are often elaborate decorations of holly intertwined with pine cones. In Rome, laurel was gathered in a sacred grove dedicated to the goddess Strenia: from here comes the word “strenna” (untranslatable and only used at this time of the year: we can take it to mean, roughly, “gift”).

We mentioned how January 1st was considered a working day. The ancient Romans celebrated earlier: around the winter solstice is when the festivals of Saturnalia were held. This was a week of liberation from rules, during which slaves and masters exchanged roles, got drunk and had fun without restraint. Let’s just say that apart from a few small differences, our customs around the end of the year perhaps originate right there. The solstice, over time, was instead overwritten by the need to celebrate other religions, including the Christian one.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar to correct the errors of the Julian calendar. Before then, New Year’s was celebrated on March 25 (the beginning of spring) to January 1st.

Ironically, however, many European countries refused to adopt the new calendar and continued to celebrate New Year’s on March 25. England, for example, did so until 1752.

In some areas of Italy, the tradition of the 12 bells that mark the passage from the old year to the new has deep roots. According to a legend, each chime represents one of the 12 eggs that Eve gave to Adam to fill the void left by the missing apple. Each egg corresponded to a month of the year, and the sound of the bells was meant to remind them never to forget to nourish themselves.

The countdown before midnight is one of the most iconic traditions of modern New Year’s, but it has a rather “technical” origin. It was introduced for the first time during missile tests in the 1950s, to give technicians time to move away before the explosion.

Today, the countdown has become a way to synchronize the entire world, even though, ironically, people continue to say “thirteen, twelve, eleven…” when in reality they should count backwards. In short, science gave the world the countdown, but never solved the problem of Italians being late.

In Italy, New Year’s Eve has always been seen as a moment to attract good fortune in the coming year. For this reason there are numerous rituals, many of which have now faded, that serve to guarantee future success. For example, it was customary to throw three clay pots full of water from the window at the stroke of midnight: it served to keep away bad luck and evil thoughts. However, given how dangerous this could be, we are not exactly heartbroken that this is no longer done… just as the throwing of old objects from windows that still occasionally characterizes the news at the beginning of the new year, perhaps it would be best to let go of certain customs!

Metaphorically closing that window and returning to the laden table, it is traditional to eat lentils, but why do we prefer them over other legumes on New Year’s Eve? In ancient times the shape of these legumes resembled little coins, an obvious symbol of prosperity. This is why they have remained on our tables. Cotechino or zampone, on the other hand, are the imaginative way of deluding oneself into having more money than one actually had: for those who didn’t have fine meat to put on the table, these two cured meats were once inexpensive and “imitated” the pig’s shank.

Clothing at New Year’s is also the subject of very specific dictates: peasant tradition requires that one wear something red, usually underwear (never to be used again!), something old to bid farewell to the past and something new (often shoes, whose noise when walking is considered good luck).

Did you know these stories that explain why New Year’s has these numerous traditions? Do you know other facts that are related to the beginning of the year? Share them with us in the comments!