The new year is considered a fresh start. We talk about our resolutions, our goals, and many, even those who aren’t superstitious, follow along with good luck rituals to make their new year even better than the last one.

We want every new year to be “our year,” so at midnight, we partake in any superstitious activity we’ve seen flooding our feed online the days leading up to January 1. 

Some rituals you have most likely heard of are eating 12 grapes under the table at midnight, keeping money in your wallet or pocket, not cleaning your house, and walking or running around with an empty suitcase. 

Each of these rituals are said to bring different things into your life. 

When you eat 12 grapes under the table at midnight, each grape you eat is supposed to give you good luck for each month of the year. You have to have clear intentions of what you want for each month in order for the grapes to work their said magic.

If you happened to have had a couple dollars in your pocket or wallet on New Year’s, then expect that change to start growing this year. Having any cash on you would have brought about a year of abundance. 

Apparently, you should also avoid cleaning your house on New Year’s Day because it brings bad luck if you do. Cleaning or doing laundry washes away the good luck in your year and can even wash away a loved one. 

To me, the first day of the year is a day of relaxing and definitely not a day I would spend cleaning my house, so I know I don’t have to worry that I may have washed out my good luck for 2026. 

If you wanted a year of adventure and travel, then let’s hope you ran around with a suitcase this New Year’s. This act could have given you a year of new journeys to embark on.

These good luck rituals are done all over the world by pretty much anyone hoping to start off their year right. The only way to really tell if these superstitions work is to wait until the end of the year to reflect all that happened. 

I ate 12 grapes under a table at the start of last year, and at the end of the year when I looked back, I don’t really think they worked that well. 

Maybe somehow I ate the grapes wrong and didn’t meet the grape eating standards for good luck.

Although my 12 grapes didn’t work, maybe they will work for all the superstitious participating people this year.