Which Greek tradition involves smashing a pomegranate at a home's entrance on New Year's Day?

Pomegranate smashing is the Greek tradition of breaking a pomegranate at a home's entrance on New Year's Day.

In this custom, a pomegranate is smashed against the doorway after midnight or on New Year's Day. The many seeds are associated with abundance, fertility, prosperity, and good fortune. Families may interpret the number and spread of the seeds as an encouraging sign for the year ahead, though the exact practice varies between households and regions.

Pomegranates have deep roots in Greek mythology and Mediterranean culture. In the myth of Persephone, eating pomegranate seeds connects her to the underworld, giving the fruit strong symbolic associations with life, death, and seasonal renewal. The New Year's custom is not the same as the vasilopita cake tradition, in which a hidden coin is baked into a cake and is thought to bring luck to the person who finds it.