What New Year's Eve ritual in Denmark involves jumping from a chair at midnight?

“Jumping into the New Year” is the Danish New Year’s Eve ritual of jumping from a chair at midnight.

In Denmark, some people stand on a chair, sofa, or other raised place and leap down as the clock reaches midnight. The action symbolically represents jumping forward into the new year and is usually performed as part of a household celebration.

Danish New Year customs also include eating kransekage, a ring-shaped marzipan cake, and listening to the monarch’s New Year’s speech. Fireworks, champagne, and social gatherings are common modern additions, while regional and family practices vary.

The chair-jumping custom is sometimes confused with first-footing, which is associated especially with Scotland and concerns who first enters a home after midnight. Denmark’s ritual is a physical gesture made at the exact transition between years, not a visiting custom.