Who will you be kissing at midnight? Photo: Lin Pernille Photography/Flickr
The short answer is because it's fun! The long answer to the riddle of the midnight kiss can be found, according to some, in old English and German legends. Believing that the first person you came into contact with in the new year would impact your happiness in the year to come, it was important that that person be someone you actually liked.
The legends holds that if you share a midnight kiss with a lover, you will have good tidings throughout the year. But if your midnight kiss is shared with someone you don't particularly care for, things won't go so well for you. And if you find yourself with nobody at all with whom to share a midnight kiss, you are pretty much guaranteed a bad year.
Superstitions aside, most of us kiss the ones we love on New Year's Eve simply because we love them. And it's fun!
