My "old-maid" Aunt Peg, my father's oldest sister, often babysat me and my siblings on New Year's Eve, allowing my parents to go out. She would lead us thorough a ritual of exiting the house by the back door at midnight and reentering through the front door. No coins, food, coal, whiskey, or other artifacts.

Peg was born in Liverpool during my grandparents' brief stay there en route from County Mayo, Ireland, to New York. (They spent about a year there, working and saving money for the transatlantic passage.) The custom's origins must lie in the West of Ireland, unless Peg learned of it from her extensive reading (or simply made it up herself, which would be unlikely).