11 Small New Year's Eve Rituals That Bring Abundance All Year Long
There are lots of great ways to intentionally manifest your best year yet.
Drazen Zigic | Shutterstock.com Whether you’re staying at home or heading out to celebrate the New Year, there are several small New Year’s Eve rituals that bring abundance all year long that can ensure you make the most of this fresh start. Of course, celebrating with friends and family, getting dressed up, and intentionally enjoying the things you love ensures you make great memories, but there’s always space for manifestation.
There’s power in a fresh start, as healthcare ethicist Jen Zamzow, PhD explains, whether it’s a new day, a transformative life change, or the start of a new year. By setting intentions, planning, and staying present as you enter these new chapters, you not only make space for growth in your life, but ensure you keep plenty of space for healing, healthy new connections, and abundance.
Here are 11 small New Year’s Eve rituals that bring abundance all year long
1. Setting intentions with your drinks
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Diana Raab, PhD, suggests that practicing this kind of intentionality doesn’t have to be isolated to fresh starts like New Year’s Eve, it’s possible to bring this mindfulness into your daily routine as well.
By journaling in the morning or finding ways to set intentions with habits throughout the day, you prioritize self-awareness in ways that ensure you’re staying present through the beauty of everyday life.
How we spend our time during passing moments is how we spend our lives. Be intentional about what you’re prioritizing.
2. Burning ‘the old’ to make space for ‘the new’
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There are a number of rituals that can help you to release the pain, unproductive memories, and relationships that no longer serve you in the new year.
While they look different in every culture and household, like Ecuador’s Años Viejos tradition or breaking plates at midnight, they can ensure you make healthy space for the new in the upcoming year.
Whether they’re with yourself or others, being intentional about how you’re releasing things that no longer serve you starts with setting boundaries.
After breaking your plates, burning your old memories, or tossing out papers with things you’re leaving behind, figure out how you’re going to show up for yourself in the new year.
Who are you letting go? What habits should you prioritize to continue leading with these intentions in mind?
3. Eating lucky foods
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Across cultures and countries, there’s a variety of “lucky” foods that can introduce abundance into your new year, especially coupled with certain intentional sayings and rituals.
For example, it’s a Spanish tradition to eat 12 grapes on New Year’s Eve, with some people suggesting you should eat them before midnight or in the first 12 seconds of the New Year.
Manifesting good fortune and abundance, each grape is meant to symbolize a month from the year, helping you to intentionally manifest a productive, fulfilling, and healthy year.
Other foods like collard greens for wealth, rice for luck, lentils for prosperity, or noodles for longevity can be a perfect ritual for a late night dinner on New Year’s Eve, helping you to set intentions with a practice that you’re already indulging in.
4. Cleaning your space
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Cleaning your space and ensuring you’re entering the new year with a comfortable home environment not only allows you a better chance at keeping new resolutions, it helps to de-stress and de-clutter your mind.
Whether we’re cognizant of it or not, the stress, chaos, and clutter of our space tends to seep into our emotional health, sparking irritability and frustration in unproductive ways.
While cleaning on New Year’s Eve can be productive for getting rid of clutter and making space for growth, some people suggest it’s bad luck to continue cleaning on January 1st, arguing it’s actually removing the prosperity, abundance, and good fortune you spent time intentionally manifesting.
5. Making a vision board
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Especially for people that struggle with crafting a vibe or keeping their aspirations and resolutions in a rigid planner, vision boarding can be one of the small New Year’s Eve rituals that bring abundance all year long.
Instead of hyper-focusing on specific tasks or accomplishments, use this ritual to manifest your future self.
Whether you’re pulling from magazines, scrolling through Pinterest, or printing out photos, collaging a clear view of what you envision your life looking like can be empowering and powerful heading into the new year.
6. Wearing red undergarments
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The Italian ritual of wearing red undergarments on New Year’s Eve isn’t new — with origins going back hundreds of years ago — but it’s evolved over time, giving new meaning to abundance, prosperity, and luck in love heading into the new year.
By wearing red undergarments, sometimes inside out, on New Year’s Eve and into the new year, you can intentionally manifest abundance and prosperity into the new year.
Depending on what area of your life you’re hoping to thrive in, set intentions while getting dressed or while taking off your undergarments at the end of the night, another piece of the evolved ritual that’s intended to cleanse the new year for a fresh start.
7. Bowls of coins
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Allegedly started in Scotland, the ritual of putting coins outside every entrance to your home on New Year’s Eve is said to be a manifestation of wealth and abundance.
By blessing the coins before putting them out — on windows, doors, and garages — and bringing them inside when you return home on New Year’s Eve, this ritual is intended to help individuals manifest their future wealth, whether it be financial abundance, a new baby, or even a relationship.
8. Midnight gratitude
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While many of the small New Year’s Eve rituals that bring abundance all year long are extremely tailored and specific, there’s intentional practices that can fit your schedule, routine, and unique resolutions.
By expressing gratitude at midnight on New Year’s Eve, you can manifest abundance by simply being present in your body.
Whether you’re writing our manifestations with a gratitude-focused journal prompt or telling the people around you how much you love them, ringing in the new year with a gracious and present energy can be profoundly impactful for shaping your year.
9. Writing down intentional resolutions
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While it’s a stereotypical and largely criticized trend of the new year, adopting the ritual of setting intentional resolutions into the new year can also be incredibly helpful and empowering for manifesting abundance in your life.
Whether you’re writing them down on New Year’s Eve or spending a few days intentionally crafting thoughtful goals, figure out how you can work them into your schedule for real results.
By ensuring you follow certain practices and habits alongside your resolutions, like psychologist Guy Winch explains — being detailed, realistic, crafting a clear calendar, and adopting an accountability partner — you can make the most of your new year’s resolutions.
Even if they’re lofty, find ways to craft small daily habits into your routine that keep you motivated and excited about reaching your goals, rather than letting them subtly fade away amid the chaos of your routine.
10. Traveling with an empty suitcase
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If you’re spending New Year’s Eve on vacation or traveling home from holiday celebrations, the unique ritual of carrying an empty suitcase can manifest new experiences, spontaneity, and more travel in the new year.
By making literal space for more excitement in the new year, this Latin ritual can be equally powerful if you're just taking a stroll around your neighborhood with an empty suitcase.
11. Putting mistletoe under your pillow
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An Irish tradition for people looking for love or a healthy romantic partner in the new year, the small ritual of putting mistletoe under your pillow on New Year’s Eve can help you to intentionally manifest abundance in the new year.
With legends suggesting the plant helps people to dream of their ideal partner heading into the new year, manifesting your perfect partner doesn’t necessarily need to be an incredibly mindful activity.
Like every other New Year’s Eve ritual, finding ways to add intention to your practices can ensure you’re actively prioritizing your own needs, rather than a passive wish that you’ll slowly forget about by February.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.