Denmark is the European country traditionally associated with smashing old plates and dishes against friends' doors on New Year's Eve.
The custom involves saving unwanted crockery and breaking it outside the homes of friends or neighbors. In the traditional interpretation, a larger pile of broken dishes signals that a household has many friends or well-wishers. It is a playful form of New Year's goodwill rather than an act of vandalism against strangers.
Danish New Year's Eve also has other recognizable traditions, including eating kransekage, a stacked almond cake, and watching the monarch's New Year's address. People may jump from a chair at midnight, symbolically leaping into the new year.
Descriptions of the plate-smashing custom often simplify it as a national rule, but practices vary by family and community. Modern concerns about cleanup, safety and changing lifestyles mean that not every Danish household follows it.