In Denmark, people have traditionally smashed plates against friends’ or neighbors’ doors on New Year’s Eve as a sign of friendship and goodwill.
The custom involved saving unwanted or chipped crockery and breaking it at the homes of people one wished to honor. A large pile of broken plates outside a doorway was traditionally interpreted as evidence that the household had many friends. The practice is often described alongside other Danish New Year customs, including jumping from a chair at midnight to symbolically leap into the New Year.
Modern Danish celebrations are more commonly associated with fireworks, festive meals, champagne, and the televised New Year’s speech from the monarch. Plate-smashing is therefore best understood as a traditional or historical custom rather than a universal activity practiced by every Danish household today.
The tradition can be confused with glass-smashing customs elsewhere, but the classic Danish account specifically refers to plates or other crockery.