Copenhagen's New Year's Eve

Many Danish people go to parties or entertain guests at home. The evening meal is more exclusive than usual, with desserts including the marzipan ring cake Kransekake along with champagne, and mains including boiled cod, or stewed kale and cured saddle of pork.

The New Year is celebrated with merrymaking and fun. It is usually well-intentioned fun and only playful, not malicious. It can, however, become mischievous. Unusually, in Denmark it is considered a good sign to find your door heaped with a pile of broken dishes at New Year's. Old dishes are saved throughout the year to throw at the front doors of friends' homes on New Year's Eve. Many broken dishes show that you have many friends.

The climax is when New Year is celebrated with fireworks as the sound of the Town Hall Tower Bells chime over Copenhagen on the strike of midnight. It is an excellent opportunity to see the parade of the Royal Guard  in red gala uniforms.