Out With the Old: The Dark and Weird Side of New Year’s Traditions

Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Curiouscast

Documentary, True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 399: As the clock strikes midnight, not everyone welcomes the New Year with champagne and resolutions. In this episode of Dark Poutine, we explore the darker, stranger, and sometimes dangerous traditions used around the world—and across Canada—to chase away bad luck and invite prosperity. From gunfire and forgotten parades in Newfoundland, to Hogmanay superstitions, poverty-banishing rituals, icy polar bear swims, and fire-lit celebrations meant to ward off evil, these customs reveal what people have been willing to risk for a clean slate. We also venture beyond Canada, examining ancient sacrifices, ritual fights, smashed plates, burning effigies, and other unsettling ways humanity has tried to reset the calendar. It’s a look at New Year’s Eve not as a party—but as a threshold, where superstition, fear, and hope collide. Episode Sources:Guns, parades and superstitions: A host of forgotten New Year's traditions in N.L. | CBC NewsOut with the old, in with the new — East Coasters share their unusual past and present New Year’s Eve traditionsNewfoundland and Labrador CustomsNew Year's Day in Canada: Traditions, History and InsightsNew Year's leveeTop safety tips for New Year’s Eve revellers35 Crazy New Year’s Eve Celebrations Throughout HistoryBizarre New Year’s Eve Traditions From Around the World | Ripley's Believe It or Not! | Aquariums, Attractions, MuseumsDecision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 6.COM 13.26New Years in Ecuador: Yellow Panties and EffigiesThe Traditional Fighting Festivals of PeruDivers had Set the Christmas Tree Underwater of the Baikal Lake6 traditions from around the world for marking a Jan. 1 new year | CBC Life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Mike here. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Dark Poutine early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.
0:17.7	Welcome back to Dark Pine and happy New Year.
0:22.9	The new year is coming up.
0:24.6	I'm really looking forward to 2026.
0:27.6	Matthew, how are you?
0:29.5	10 out of 10.
0:30.5	How are you doing?
0:31.2	10 out of 10.
0:32.4	I am rocking and rolling and sometimes, you know, doing pretty good.
0:39.0	The views, information, and opinions expressed during the Dark Petitine podcast are solely those
0:46.1	of the producer and do not necessarily represent those of Curiouscast, its affiliate, Global
0:52.5	News, nor their parent company, Chorus Entertainment.
0:59.2	Dark Putine is not for the faint of heart or squeamish. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
1:05.3	We're not experts on the topics we present, nor are we journalists. We're two ordinary
1:10.0	Canadian schmucks chatting about crime and the dark side of history. Let's get to it. Put on your toque. Grab yourself a double-double end in a Nainmo bar. It's time to scarf down some dark putteen. You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining at your own cost all equipment needed to listen to dark putine. Dark Putine can be addictive. Side effects may include, but not be limited to, pausing and questioning the system, elevated heart rate, pondering humanity, odd looks from colleagues as he laugh out at work. Family members, not into true crime worrying about you. Positive side effects may include some perspectives and opinions that you disagree with, as well as some wokenness and empathy. If you don't think dark putine is for you, consult your doctor immediately. I'm The week between Christmas and New Year's always feels a bit different, a bit of a liminal limbo.
2:41.4	The rush has passed, but the New Year hasn't yet begun.
2:45.3	It's a quiet, uncertain stretch of time when the world seems to pause and take a breath.
2:52.6	For centuries, people have filled this strange gap with rituals meant to ward off darkness and invite good fortune for the
2:58.4	year ahead. Some of those customs were hopeful, others were downright eerie. Across Canada and around
3:06.3	the world, New Year's traditions once carried a weight
3:09.5	far beyond champagne toasts and countdowns. They were rooted in superstition, fear, and the need to
3:16.5	control what couldn't be known. In this episode, we'll look at how our ancestors greeted the
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