Getting over the American obsession with germs.

It’s music festival season: this weekend South by Southwest is in Indie-rocking in Austin, and next week Miami Beach will descend into a disco inferno as the Winter Music Conference (WMC) rolls into town from the 20th to the 25th.

Icelanders are famous for knocking back Brennivín, a local version of schnapps so lethal it’s also known as “black death,” but beer was illegal on the island for 75 years, until March 1, 1989.

Brangelina and the Zagat guides are doing their best to help New Orleans back on its way to hedonistic health, but a party like Mardi Gras really speaks for itself.

Whether the locals call it Mardi Gras, Carnevale, or Fastnacht, Carnival is happening this weekend, and it’s the world’s biggest party.

If you’re in the US, local “blue” laws preventing the sale or consumption of alcohol on a Sunday, which New Year’s Eve is this year, could but a serious damper on your party plans.

In honor of the coming New Year, the jet-setting folks at Condé Nast Traveler have rounded up a list of how 12:00 am, January 1 will be met in nine different places around the globe.