For our family, the start of the new year is not complete without some staple good-luck foods. Our tradition is ham, black-eyed peas, and collard greens. There isn’t a New Year’s Day in recent memory where we didn’t cook some combination of these three staples.
Until recently, I hadn’t thought much about why these three tasty items are common for New Year’s Day meals, and it turns out that there is a little tradition behind each one. The peas and the greens represent financial good luck, with the peas representing coins and the greens representing the green of money. Pretty cool, but I like the reason for the pork tradition better. Apparently, pork is favored on New Year’s Day because pigs eat and root moving forward, whereas chickens are always kicking dirt behind them. Somehow that observation led to the tradition of avoiding chicken, because it represents looking at the past, and eating pork, because it represents moving forward and looking to the future. Interestingly, avoiding eating beef (cows eat standing still) and crab (they move sideways) are also part of the tradition of eating pork. True or not, I’m going to stick to our New Year’s tradition. Not only is it tasty, but I am happy to have a little extra luck in any way that I can find it.
What are some of your New Year’s Day food traditions? In doing a quick search, I saw references to eating cornbread, sauerkraut, grapes, raisins, and pomegranates as a few good luck traditions. I hope that whatever your traditions are, they bring you good luck, good health, and a prosperous year.
Speaking of luck, how lucky are we to live in Florida! Monday was a little cold and breezy, but every day since has been a postcard weather day. Definitely the reason we live here. I’m sure you are taking advantage of the wonderful weather and having some fun in your garden. We’re doing the same, and when we aren’t tending our plants, we’re busy planning our 2022 events for the spring season. It’s going to be a great year, I can already feel it.
