Most holidays and traditions in Greece have obvious meaning. At Easter, the death and resurrection of Christ is grieved and celebrated as if it was happening again. There is no confusion about the symbolism. At Christmas, decorative boats are strung with twinkle lights in honor of St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors whose feast day is celebrated in December . On New Year’s Eve, however, things are different.

New Year’s Eve is usually celebrated with more curious traditions. Most are based on superstitions; opening all the faucets at midnight is supposed to bring you good luck and money in the coming year, as is smashing a pomegranate on the doorstep, or being the lucky person who finds the coin hidden in the “vasilopita” cake. It’s also common to gift each other lucky charms.

Some of the traditions don’t seem to have any hidden meaning at all. Our favorite one is the early New Year’s Day breakfast, a custom that probably started with someone at some point in time uttering the words “I’ve had a lot to drink; we better eat something. What’s open?”

It’s stage three on the New Year’s agenda for most young people. Stage one is dinner and card games with the family (with optional gift exchanges and superstitious fruit smashing). After midnight, it’s time to battle traffic for stage two, which is drinking and dancing at the clubs until you forget everything about the previous year. Then, finally, you get to stage three, the tradition of ending the New Year’s Eve festivities – and beginning the new year with a very early, and very big, breakfast.

Many hotel restaurants open early to satisfy the hungry mouths of revellers who have danced all through the night (of course, if you prefer to sleep before you have your eggs, you can find excellent buffet and brunch options all day long).

Below are some of our favorite options for the first meal of 2018 (be advised that reservations may be required):

For those who prefer to sleep first, and brunch in the new year later, the city is bursting with excellent brunch options. See here for some of our favorites.