Which Danish New Year's Eve custom involves jumping from a chair at midnight?

The Danish custom of jumping from a chair at midnight is called jumping into the New Year.

At the stroke of midnight, some people in Denmark stand on chairs, sofas, or other raised furniture and jump down. The gesture symbolizes leaping forward from the old year into the new one. It is a playful household ritual rather than a formal public ceremony, and participation varies among families and communities.

Danish New Year's celebrations also include champagne, fireworks, and the King's or Queen's New Year speech, traditionally broadcast on December 31. Another well-known custom is leaving or throwing broken plates at the doors of friends and neighbors, although this tradition is less universal today than it once was.

The chair-jumping practice is sometimes described as simply “jumping into the new year,” rather than having one fixed Danish-language title. That wording captures the custom without confusing it with fireworks or the separate plate-smashing tradition.