In Denmark's New Year's Eve custom, plates are traditionally smashed against friends' or neighbors' doors.
The practice is associated with breaking unwanted or old crockery at the homes of people one wishes well. A pile of broken plates outside a door is traditionally interpreted as a sign that the household has many friends. Rather than treating the broken dishes as vandalism, the custom frames them as a cheerful expression of affection and social connection.
The tradition is especially associated with Denmark's New Year's celebrations, alongside other customs such as jumping from a chair at midnight to symbolically leap into the new year. Danish families and communities may observe these practices differently, and the plate-smashing custom is not universal.
It is sometimes confused with traditions involving breaking glasses or pottery in other countries. In the Danish version most commonly described in reference works, plates are the characteristic object, making the custom a memorable example of a New Year's ritual built around household crockery.