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From ringing bells and making noise to special foods and fireworks, see how places around the world celebrate New Year’s Eve.

Taipei

Like many other Asian countries, the festivities in Taiwan follow the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Thus Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, being the most important festivity in Chinese culture, takes place between January 21 and February 21. However, day to day activities marked by the Gregorian calendar and Western influence have made the Gregorian New Year festival very popular, especially in the capital.

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As in the big cities of Europe and America, the night of December 31 to January 1st in Taipei means many New Year’s Eve parties in bars, restaurants and discos to welcome the New Year. But, since its construction in 2004, the Taipei 101 Tower has become the real center of the party: attracting millions of people to take part in the collective countdown and enjoy the performances by local pop stars and the astonishing lights and fireworks show, in which the sponsor in turn invests more and more money each year to make it more spectacular than the year before. For this year’s show 22,000 fireworks in all have been prepared; 1,700 of which will go off simultaneously from 101 Tower.

Madrid

Puerta del Sol is where all eyes turn as Midnight of December 31st approaches.

The clock mounted in the roof of the offices of the City Hall is broadcast across the country as its chimes mark the end of the old and the beginning of the New Year.

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The most curious tradition in Spain is that as each chime rings out you eat a grape before the next chime peals. The intention being that by the time the final chime rings you have eaten twelve whole grapes!

Supposedly if you are able to eat the 12 grapes you will have really good luck for the upcoming year.

This tradition comes from the new year of 1909. It was an excessive grape harvest and the harvesters made up the lucky 12 grape tradition J