During New Year’s Eve peeps do often spend time “playing fortune telling games”. The idea is of course not to take it seriously but just have some fun and keep traditions alive. One of these games is called as “predicting the future from small items hidden under coffee cups. Several symbolic items are hidden under cups turned upside down and then one of the “players” leave room while others “shuffle” the cups. Then the person is called in to rise three cups and find out her/his future for the next year.
My mother thought me this game with the following nine objects:

Conifer branch = Death, which means definite end of something like a project, friendship or even life.

Key = Ownership of something like a house, real estate, pet, or anything that requires major investment.

Piece of bread = Secure income, carefree living. This does not mean one is getting money but more like security in life and butter on the bread.

Piece of black yarn = Sorrow and loss but not as extreme as in case of conifer branch.

Piece of red yarn = Happiness and joy in life.

Baby doll = Children, fertility or beginning of something completely new. Can mean also beginning of a successful project.

Ring = Engagement, marriage or friendship. Start of some sort of good relationship in general.

Silver coin = Troubles in projects or any kind of obstacles in life like accidents or loss of material.

Copper coin = Wealth in form of money and richness.

One can of course make own “house rules” and choose a set of own items and explanations. Here’s one Web page where the game is explained for 17 different items. However, I prefer nine because otherwise you just simple run out of cups in a small household when trying to find 17 of them.