strangest new years traditions

From great balls of fire, to possums, grape eating and animal whispering, we reveal the worlds weirdest New Year customs.In Stonehaven, Scotland, there is a custom of parading through the streets on New Years Eve while swinging blazing balls of fire around. The tradition is part of Scotlands Hogmanay celebrations, although its roots trace back to the Vikings.

Locals inTalca, central Chile, like to see in the new year in the company of their dead relatives. Thought to have begun when a family broke in one year to be near their dead father, the town mayor now opens the graveyard after late night mass and thousands sit surrounded by candles while classical music plays.

Farmers try to hear their animals talk in a ritual which, if successful, signifies not just a Doctor Dolittle gift for communicating with our furry relatives but good luck for the coming year.

St Marks Square is known for holding not only a big firework display over the Basin of St. Mark but for something far more unusual, a mass kiss in in the piazza.

Look out below! Its the idea of starting the new year afresh that leads residents of Johannesburg, those in Hillsboro in particular, to throw old furniture out of their windows. Italians follow a similar tradition and, not wanting to be lumbered with anything unwanted, conduct an early spring clean by way of their windows.

This is the Siberian custom of cutting a hole in the ice covering Lake Baikal and diving to the lakes bottom while carrying a New Years tree. Note only professional divers participate.

This old British comedy sketch, about a lonely 90th birthday dinner, has been inexplicably embraced by Germans, and is broadcast in many homes during new year festivities. It is up to the butler, James, to play the role of Miss Sophies departed friends, getting more and more drunk as he does so.

People wanting to celebrate new year in Romania put on bear costumes and furs and dance at different houses to keep evil at bay.

In the town of Brasstown, North Carolina, a possum in a transparent box is lowered over a noisy crowd, in the worlds only known possum drop. It reflects Brasstowns claim to be the possum capital of the world.

Revellers seeing in the new year in Spain have their mouths full when they try to stuff twelve grapes in one for each chime of the clock during the countdown.