Since the Romans declared January as the month of Janus, the two-face god that looks both forward and backward with a wrinkled, beardy face and another one young and smooth, the tradition began little by little to settle down all across Europe, spreading from there to the rest of the planet. However, the New Year’s Eve dinner on December 31 didn’t become a genuine festivity until the late 19th century and the early 20th century, and unlike the Christmas celebration, is usually held among friends and in big parties and get-togethers.

As to the moment of the celebration, there are huge differences among cultures. Asian people, for instance, as well as many Amerindian civilizations, keep relying on the lunar calendar. Therefore, it’s not odd for them to celebrate the coming of the New Year in late January or early February, depending on the phrase of the moon. And traditions also vary during the holiday season. In Spain, for example, people see off the waning year by eating a dozen grapes —one for each bell of the clock at midnight. The tradition harks back to 1909 when a group of vintners rolled out a campaign to get rid of their surplus following the grape harvest.

In Germany, however, fire castles are burned in an effort to shoo away evil spirits, while some South American nations burn a giant doll in effigy when the clock strikes the midnight hour. Norwegians celebrate the Hogmanay, a party in which a wooden keg is set on fire and sent rolling down the streets to make way for the New Year.

And there are those who go to the seashore. In Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, people light up candles and toss flowers to the sea as small vessels pay tribute to the Orisha Yemaya. In the Netherlands and other countries of northern Europe, for their part, tradition indicates a swim in the sea during the first day of the year.

The point is you have to be really brave to do so because it’s wintertime and water temperature is extremely low. Nonetheless, meals are the best ways to show the assortment of traditions that abounds during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. The table is the centerpiece of the party and every nation serves its own dishes.

T h i s is just another element in which diversity does make a difference, depending on the hemisphere, the creeds and the religious customs. In Venezuela, for instance, right before midnight families gather in their homes and cook hallaca, a pot of stuffed meats seasoned with spices that’s given away among friends who come knocking on the door during New Year’s Eve.

In Argentina —the country is in the middle of the summer— people prefer cold salads, pork meat in bittersweet sauce and fruits, though like in most of Spain’s former colonies the tradition of serving nougats, sweet bread rolls and the twelve midnight grapes has lived out. In Peru, the pachamanca is all the rage again. This Inca-origin meal is made by cooking several meats with the heat coming from Mother Earth.

In Benin people drink gallons of chapalo, a sort of fermented beer, while animals are sacrificed and part of their blood sipped as an offering to the gods, hoping they’ll give them a good harvest. Cubans gobble up roast pork, congrí (rice and beans), cassava and vegetable salads. In England, the table is served with roast mutton, and Americans prefer a good T-bone steak.

However, to Asian civilizations a good New Year’s Eve meal means a whole lot more because each and every plate has a significance of its own. In China it’s commonplace to serve fish (yu) that stands for abundance, chive (chiu-tsai) that represents eternity, turnips (tsai-tou) that bode good times ahead, or slices of rice pudding (nien-kao) to wish people to move up the social or political ladder.

Japanese people are equally ceremonious and like serving tables full of “long meals” like noodles, bamboo sprouts or soy beans, all of them meaning “a long life.” But they also cook maki-sushi. And a curiosity to wrap things up. Tradition has it that at midnight people should eat as many soy beans as years of age they will be as a way to clinch a long life.

Recipe Roast Mutton Ingredients Mutton 1 clove of garlic Ground onion, paprika, salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, basil and ground mustard 2 teaspoons of olive oil Preparation Preheat the oven at 356 °F. Make a small cut in the mutton, near the bone, and insert the clove of garlic. Mix the condiments. Use a small brush to smear the mutton with olive oil and sprinkle the condiments on it. Broil from two and a half to three hours. Check if it’s ready to be served.