From panties to potatoes, global New Year's customs predict what's to come

Watching the ball drop in Times Square, toasting with champagne and shooting off fireworks are familiar ways many in America may choose to ring in the New Year.

Around the globe, other countries and cultures have their own unique New Year traditions.

Fodor’s lists several unusual examples:

Fashion forecast

In some Latin American countries, what folks choose to wear underneath their outer garments is most revealing.

The color-coded custom holds that wearing red undies will bring love and romance in the new year. Yellow panties will attract wealth and success while green ones portend well-being.

Regular tighty whities are said to guarantee peace and harmony.

Led by lead

In Germany, some people turn to heavy metal for a glimpse into the coming year.

In this tradition, a small piece of lead is melted over a candle and poured into cold water. The shape the metal takes is significant.

If it forms in the shape of a crown, wealth is on the way. A star signifies happiness and a cross death. If the shape is a ball, “luck will roll one’s way.”

Rounding out the year

Filipinos attempt to attract wealth with round items or images, suggesting the shape of things to come: a proliferation of coins.

They may eat round-shaped food, wear clothes with polka-dot patterns or go for the real deal – by keeping the coins in their pockets jangling.

Furry friend

While most people try to avoid an encounter with a bear, in rural parts of Romania, pre-Christian lore holds that having one enter your house brings health and prosperity.

It’s part of a broader tradition of people dressing as various animals – including bears and goats – and dancing from house to house to keep evil spirits at bay.

Look out below

In Naples, Italy, residents toss old possessions from their balconies to start anew with the changing of the year. For safety’s sake, most choose relatively small, soft objects for the throw-down, but major appliances also can be involved.

Dishing it out

In Denmark, New Year’s Eve celebrants focus on clearing out the china cabinet. Those who follow the tradition throw plates against the front doors of their friends and neighbors.

The more broken dishes a home accumulates, the luckier its occupants will be in the months ahead.

Bells and buckwheat

In Japan, a Buddhist tradition calls for ringing bells to cleanse the 108 evil passions all humans are said to have. The bells are rung 107 times on New Year’s Eve and a final time after midnight.

It’s also believed that eating buckwheat noodles on New Year’s Eve will promote a long life.

Fruitful fortune

A Spanish tradition challenges people to eat a dozen grapes at midnight, according to greenglobaltravel.com. One of the fruits should be downed at each stroke of the clock for good luck.

Of suitcases and spuds

People in Colombia will carry an empty suitcase around their block, which is meant to bring them a year full of travels.

Potatoes are involved in another form of prognostication in Colombia. According to Taste of Home, three potatoes with various skin conditions are placed under one’s bed on New Year’s Eve.

At midnight, one of the spuds is pulled out. If it is peeled, financial trouble looms. If it is unpeeled, abundance is around the corner. A half-peeled potato lands one’s fortunes somewhere in the middle.