This Is How The World Celebrates The New Year Slideshow

New Year's Eve is a time for reflection, introspection, and goal-setting, but it's also for spending time with loved ones and seeing the present year out with one last hurrah. It's followed by people trying desperately to remember to add one to the year number they're used to writing on documents and sticking to New Year's resolutions, which 45 percent of Americans usually make.

Celebrating the New Year dates back to 4,000 years ago, when the Babylonians celebrated at the first full moon after the spring equinox. It's a time of hope and new beginnings, and at the conclusion of each year, many welcome that mental milestone for starting again. Maybe that's why over one million people gather together in New York City's Times Square to watch the ball drop, and over one billion watch it on television. Fireworks are set off over the Thames River in London and over Sydney Harbour in Australia. And all over the world, people celebrate in different ways, often with traditions believed to bring luck, financial fortune, love, and happiness. We've rounded up 10 ways the world celebrates the New Year — try some of them out to see if they bring you luck in 2016.

Travel opens the mind and expands the worldview, so it's no wonder many Colombians want to ensure the most travel possible in the coming year. Tradition says to run around the block with empty suitcases, but maybe participants should train for it first. The faster they run, the more they'll supposedly travel.

Tradition in Estonia suggests eating 12 different meals on New Year's Eve to have the strength of 12 men in the year ahead. People don't finish the meals, however. Parts are left out for the hungry spirits of ancestors that may visit on the night before the New Year.

One New Year's tradition in Ireland brings a whole new meaning to the term "gluten-free." It's customary to bang loaves of bread loudly against walls and doors in order to drive out evil spirits from one's home. 

New Year's Day in the Philippines is a great excuse not to do laundry, as legend has it that washing clothes on this day will lead to the death of someone in the household. More cheery customs include keeping money in one's pocket to ensure incoming funds in the New Year and opening doors and windows to let negative energy out and positive in.

Got grapes? In Spain, the first 12 seconds of the New Year are often dedicated to quickly eating 12 grapes — one for each month ahead. People who finish them all before the last stroke of midnight are said to be in for a very lucky year.