New Year's Eve traditions in Portugal

New Year’s Eve in Portugal, or Réveillon, is one long slow build. People usually start at home or with family for a big dinner, keep an eye on the TV countdown, then spill out onto balconies, streets or the local square as midnight hits.

Classic Portuguese New Year’s Eve traditions and superstitions

Portuguese New Year’s traditions lean heavily into the idea that you can nudge your luck a bit if you play your cards right. Depending on where you choose to celebrate NYE in Portugal, you see it in the food, the quirky rituals and even the colour of your underwear. Older relatives tend to be the guardians of these habits, but plenty of younger people still quietly follow them, even if they laugh about it at the same time.

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Eating 12 raisins at midnight

The famous raisin ritual is probably the best-known of the New Year’s Eve traditions in Portugal. As the clock strikes twelve, you eat twelve raisins, one for each chime, making a different wish with each one. Most people wash them down with espumante or champagne, and there is always someone who miscounts or nearly chokes because the seconds go by faster than expected.

Money rituals

There is a strong belief that the way money sits on you at midnight will shape your finances for the year ahead. Lots of people slip notes into their pockets or hold a bit of cash in their hands as the countdown starts. Some take it further and tuck coins into their shoes or line up wallets by the door to “welcome in” prosperity.

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New outfit and lucky underwear

Fresh clothes for New Year’s Eve are seen as a way of stepping into the next year with clean energy. The real obsession, though, is underwear, with colour supposedly setting the tone for the year ahead. In Portugal, blue is the classic for luck and harmony, but you also see red for love and yellow or gold for money. Shops fill up with racks of brightly coloured pants in December.

Making noise at midnight

When midnight finally arrives, Portuguese neighbourhoods get noisy very quickly. People bang pots and pans on balconies, shout wishes to each other across courtyards and lean on car horns down on the street. In bigger places like Lisbon and Porto, there are official fireworks shows.

More Portuguese New Year’s Eve rituals

On top of the big headline customs, there are lots of smaller New Year’s Eve rituals in Portugal that people weave into the night to give love, luck and general life a bit of a boost.

• Jumping off a chair or step at midnight
  Some people climb onto a chair or small step just before midnight, then jump as the year changes, hoping to “rise” in life and leave any bad energy behind on the floor.
• Stepping into the new year with the right foot
  There is a quiet habit of making sure your first step after midnight is with the right foot, as a way of walking into the year on the “right path”.
• Burning written wishes or resolutions
  A few people write wishes or resolutions on small bits of paper, burn them and sometimes drop the ashes into their drink, treating it as a way of sending their hopes out into the universe.

Traditional Portuguese New Year’s food and drink

Food is a huge part of New Year’s Eve in Portugal, even though it comes hard on the heels of a very heavy Christmas. New Year’s food is often a sort of encore of Portuguese Christmas classics, with a few special touches added in.

New Year's Eve in Funchal, Madeira. Cláudia Rodrigues, CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative commons

New Year’s Eve dinner

The backbone of many New Year’s Eve tables is still bacalhau, usually baked or drowned in olive oil, onions and garlic. However, roast turkey or pork often makes another appearance, too. In coastal areas, there is usually more fresh seafood, while northern families might lean into heartier meat dishes. 

Sweets, desserts and cakes on New Year’s Eve

Portuguese dessert usually looks like Christmas never ended. You see plenty of bolo rei and bolo rainha still going strong, along with underrated creamy puddings and chocolate mousse made in generous family-sized bowls. 

Drinks for ringing in the New Year

The star of the midnight toast is Portuguese espumante, which is often surprisingly decent without costing a fortune. Some people splash out on champagne or other sparkling wines, but most are happy with something bubbly and chilled in their glass. 

New Year’s Day traditions in Portugal

New Year’s Day in Portugal tends to be the calm after the storm. Streets are quiet in the morning, a lot of shutters stay down, and people surface slowly for a long lunch with family. 

New Year's dip at Carcavelos Beach. Horacio Villalobos Getty images

New Year’s Day lunch

Lunch on 1st January is usually the main event, with families gathering around big tables again, even if everyone looks a bit tired. 

Braving the ocean on the first day of the year

Along the coast, you sometimes see brave souls heading for the Atlantic first thing on New Year’s Day. In some towns, there are organised charity swims, in others, it is more of an informal meet-up of locals and a few slightly hungover visitors. 

Lisbon Christmas lights. Horacio Villalobos Getty images

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