Happy new year to all.
May the new year bring you health, happiness and joy, and peace to all the world.
Greeks are proverbial well-wishers, but I will stop myself here and tell you instead about a new year’s Greek custom and the story behind it.
As soon as the new year’s countdown is over, and Greeks have embraced each other wishing all a long life, health, happiness and more, they gather around the table to cut the “New Year’s Pie”.
This is usually a rich cake with the new year’s number written on top and a little surprise hidden within: a coin to be found when the cake is cut. Tradition says that the person who finds the coin in their slice will enjoy good luck all year round. Some families leave the matter entirely to luck but in others, the parents conspire for the coin to be found by one of the children. No matter who finds the coin, the sweetness and richness of the cake symbolise our wish for a sweet and rich new year.
So, good luck and a happy new year to you all!
PS. If you want to know more about this custom, see here.
Aristotle, Greek tourist guide 
Happy New Year to you too! Taso
Thank you.
In France we call this “the kings’ cake” and also have a surprised hidden inside. The winners get to wear a cardboard crown! We also favor kids to find the surprise.
Happy new year Aristotle.
Thank you.
How very interesting that you should have a similar custom. What’s the surprise?
Sometimes it’s a small religious statue of the Virgin Mary of another Saint, but often now it’s just a small funny character.
Asterix or Obelix I hope…
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I know you Greeks are crazy for Asterix! Same for me. My parents were offering me one Asterix comic every month when I was a kid. There’s still the price tag on the back cover and I’m amazed to see it was costing so few: 15 francs, that was about 2 euros!!