So, I want to make sure I’ll be really lucky this year. You do, too? Well, lucky for you, I did a lot of research. By that I mean I just did some googling, but hey, it’s already your lucky day, so let’s not complain about my method of research, okay?
To ensure that we’ll be swimming in luck, we are to eat certain foods on New Year’s Day. There are many different beliefs and traditions out there, but I can pretty much summarize many of them this way:
Color
Consuming food items that are green and yellow on New Year’s Day is said to bring luck and riches for the entire year. The color green is associated with the color of currency or money, while yellow represents the color of gold.
Green leafy vegetables such as kale, collard, turnip or mustard greens are traditionally stewed and served as part of New Year’s Day meal in Southern U.S. Typically, cornbread would accompany the meal; its yellow color satisfies the gold component of the belief.
Shape
The shape of foods served on New Year’s Day appears to play an important role in many cultures and traditions in determining one’s fortune for the year ahead. Round foods often represent luck and prosperity because of their resemblance to coins.
In Italy, coin-shaped lentils are traditionally served to welcome the new year, much like black-eyed peas, representing pennies, in the Southern U.S. In the Philippines, people celebrate by displaying and consuming round fruits. People in Greece, on the other hand, smash a pomegranate to predict how likely the new year will be filled with prosperity. The fuller a pomegranate is filled with seeds, the more likely the future is filled with fortune.
In Spain and South America, grapes have been used to determine what months in the new year will be good or bad. 12 grapes are eaten in quick succession just as the clock strikes at midnight. Each grape is said to correlate with each month, with sweet predicting good times and sour bringing the bad.
In China and Japan, long noodles are slurped to guarantee long life; the longer the noodles, the better.
Some people also consider circular or ring-shaped foods such as bagels and donuts to be lucky since they represent the year has come full circle as well as eternity.
Pork and fish
Many cultures that appreciate pork regard it as celebratory meat. Pigs are thought to represent prosperity because their meat is fatty, and progress since their noses root forward as they search for food.
The tradition of serving pork and sauerkraut is still alive and well among Pennsylvania Dutch communities in the U.S.
For the Chinese, a New Year’s meal must consist of a whole fish. Fish symbolizes wealth and good fortune since their scales are silvery and shaped like coins.
Similarly, in Germany and Poland, pickled herring is consumed to bring in good luck.
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So, which of these traditions do you follow? My family doesn’t exactly have any specific food tradition for the New Year’s celebration. We just usually have a lot of food on the table. And drinks! This is the one time in the year when the bubblies are a must for us. The real thing for the adults and sparkling juice for the kids.
So, I’m ready to adopt any and all of these traditions. I figure, why not? I want to make sure I’m plenty lucky this year! So, tonight I’m cutting my veggies coin-shaped.
Then I’m making black-eyed pea soup with sausages and greens,
and donut-shaped corn bread.
And I’m having lots of pork with this bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin, served with sauerkraut and coin-shaped potatoes, for good measure.
Recipes to follow. Happy New Year, everyone!
What fantastic things to find out in your research! I knew a couple of them but not that many. And I love how you applied them! We sort of kept on the right tracks by accident on New Year’s Day, it seems – we had an Italian beans and greens soup for lunch then went out to our favorite (very good) pizza place later 🙂
Thanks, Caroline! So glad you found this interesting. I was fascinated as well. Most of these traditions are easy enough to adopt and frankly for me, a clever way to get my family to eat healthy – beans, greens, fruits 😄
What fun!! When I lived in South Carolina it seemed EVERYONE served black eyed peas & collards on New Year’s Day- a great tradition. Your spread brings that up a notch & is BEAUTIFUL too- of course 🙂 Happy New Year to you!!
Thanks, Josette! I’m definitely adopting the beans & greens tradition. An excuse to get my family to eat healthy, haha….. So clever whoever started it! Happy New Year!
I loved this post Angie. For some reason, the black eyed pea and greens tradition has been in some of our families tradition for years. I like your shaping foods into rounds ideaI I hope 2015 is the best year so far for you, your family and “The Novice Gardener”!
Thanks, Gerard! I like the peas and greens tradition and am adopting it from now on. A clever excuse to get my family to eat healthy on New Year’s Day! I also like the donut idea. That’s probably my favorite. Happy New Year! Wishing you a fantastic 2015!
I have some examples for making sure the new year will be lucky but not food related- I guess sometimes it might be handy, especially if you can’t eat anymore! So it’s important that you wear at least one new cloth- even pair of socks would do, and if you have a sweater with pockets put some small change into them and make noise while you walk through the house- my sister called me on the 1st just to ask if I did all of the above imagine! So Happy New Year once again! Beautiful pictures by the way 🙂
That sounds like fun!! I’m going to tell my kids about it and I know they’ll love the idea. They did bang some pots and pans 😀 Those crazy kids! It’s their dad that encouraged the craziness, btw! Glad you enjoyed the pictures!
I know this kind of dad- mine was like that too. Now he’s doing it to his grandchildren- the best dad ever 😀
Happy New Year to you 🙂
Same to you, Raphaelle! XOXO
I’m only just catching up on blog reading… maybe too late to follow your advice for lots of luck this year! For the last few years, we’ve eaten lentils on new year’s eve and macaroni on Jan 1st – according to a Sicilian cookbook I have, this will ensure good fortune for the coming year. If nothing else, it’s an excuse to eat good food!
My Italian friends eat lentils on New Year’s so you got that right, Sarah! I’d say you should go ahead and do new year celebration all over again. Hey, like you said, it’s a good excuse to eat good food! 😀
Cool post Angie! I will plan on eating lots of green this month. 😉
Good idea, Bonnie! Maybe I should start eating fish, too. I wanna make sure I’m super lucky! 😉
Nice post! I’m referencing it in an upcoming post of my own about new year’s brunch. Thanks for perfectly capturing the lucky foods idea. Check out my blog at http://glovergardens.com . The new year’s post will happen tomorrow or the next day.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be checking it out!
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