Only in Lebanon: 2026 written in the stars

While much of the world welcomes the New Year with champagne, countdown playlists, and vague promises to “do better,” Lebanon adds its own essential ingredient: predictions.

As December 31 unfolds, living rooms across the country glow with television screens tuned not to fireworks, but to familiar faces promising insight into what lies ahead. Before midnight strikes, before wishes are exchanged, many Lebanese want answers.

Will the coming year bring stability? War? A political breakthrough? Economic relief? Or just the same chaos, recycled under a new calendar year?

It is, unmistakably, an Only in Lebanon tradition.

No New Year’s Eve feels complete without the ritual appearance of Michel Hayek and Maguy Farah. Families pause conversations, volume goes up, phones come out.  Between one channel and another, the future is mapped out through stars, numbers, visions, and intuition. Politics, money, health, and security are all filtered through cosmic logic. It’s not about accuracy as much as familiarity. These voices have become part of the soundscape of Lebanese New Year’s Eve.

Some watch with humor, commenting loudly, rolling their eyes, laughing at the drama and theatrical suspense. Others watch quietly, almost seriously, hoping to hear something, anything, that suggests relief might be coming.

Horoscopes play their role too. Suddenly, zodiac signs feel personal. Aries is warned. Cancer is promised opportunity. Capricorn is told to be patient, again. Social media fills with posts asking, “What does 2026 have in store for my sign?” Screenshots circulate. Friends tag each other. Even those who swear they don’t believe somehow know their sign by heart.

It’s less about astrology and more about reassurance. The idea that chaos, at least for one night, might follow some kind of pattern. By January, reality will return. The clips will resurface. The predictions will be tested. Some will “come true.” Others will quietly fade. And life, as always, will continue. But on December 31, before the year officially changes, Lebanon does what it knows best: it gathers, watches, debates, laughs, and hopes.

Because only in Lebanon do we welcome the New Year with fireworks in the sky, uncertainty in our pockets, and an astrologer on TV explaining why both somehow make sense.