What traditional New Year’s Eve custom in Denmark involves people jumping from chairs at midnight?

The Danish New Year’s Eve custom involves “jumping into the new year” from a chair at midnight.

In this tradition, people stand on chairs or other elevated furniture and jump down when the clock strikes twelve. The action symbolically marks the leap from the old year into the new one and is often performed at home during a New Year’s gathering.

Danish New Year celebrations also commonly include a televised New Year’s address from the monarch, a midnight toast, fireworks, and the dessert known as kransekage. Kransekage is a ring-shaped almond cake built in stacked layers and is strongly associated with festive occasions.

The chair-jumping custom is sometimes described in English with slightly different wording, but “jumping into the new year” is the standard concise name. It should not be confused with the Danish practice of smashing unwanted dishes, which is a separate, older folk custom.