People all over the world have special traditions for celebrating the arrival of the new year, and often celebrations include the idea of eating lucky foods, thought to bring happiness and prosperity in the year to come. Just which foods are lucky depends on where you are, but there are some traditions that are pretty widespread. Here are suggestions for lucky foods from around the world, but if you have a New Year's Food tradition that brings you luck, please share your link or recipe in the comments.
Foods Shaped Like Coins
In many places, foods shaped like coins are thought to bring prosperity in the new year. If you're in North America, especially the Southern U.S. states, black-eyed peas are a tradition for New Year's Day, possibly dating from the civil war, when most crops were burned and people survived on this type of field pea, also called cow peas. In the South black-eyed peas are most often served in a traditional dish called Hopping John, usually containing ham, rice, and collard greens and paired with macaroni and cheese. Last year on Blogher I shared more ideas for cooking black-eyed peas if you'd like to get the black-eyed peas luck in a less traditional dish.
Many African Americans make a type of coin-shaped cookie called Benne Wafers for good luck in the new year, or as part of the celebration of Kwanzaa.
In Italy people often eat lentils and sausages just after midnight on New Years Eve, and lentil dishes also symbolize good luck for New Year's in Germany and Brazil. In some eastern European countries, the lentils are combined with sauerkraut, and the long strands of sauerkraut symbolize long life.
In Turkey pomegranates symbolize good luck for the coming year because of the red color and the shape of the seeds, which represent money and prosperity.
Eating Greens
Eating vegetables such as cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, chard, or kale for New Year's seems to be associated with the idea that the folded greens symbolize money and are thought to bring good fortune. While southerners in the U.S. are often adamant that the choice must be collard greens, in Germany Sauerkraut is traditional, and in Denmark Kale cooked in white sauce and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon is common for New Year's luck.
Eating Grapes
In Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, and Peru, it is often traditional to eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight, one for each month in the coming year. Some people say the name of the month as they eat each grape, and if that grape is sweet, it will be a good month.
Pork for New Year's
Pork is a symbol of prosperity in many cultures, which is one reason pork dishes are often associated with New Year's feasts. Pigs are considered good luck because they root forward, symbolizing progress, and the fatty meat is also symbolic of fattening wallets in Italy, where pigs trotters with lentils or Zampone is a traditional New Year's dish. The wide variety of pork dishes eaten all over the world at this time of year includes things like roast suckling pig (Ireland, Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, and Austria), roast pork and sausages (eastern Europe), ham and collard greens (U.S.), Pig's feet (Sweden), or Sausages with Bigos (Poland).
Fish Scales to Symbolize Silver
Fish, especially those with silver scales, are thought to be a lucky food for the new year in some places. In Germany many New Year's feasts will contain carp, and some people will put some of the scales from the fish in their wallet to bring luck. Many people in Germany or Poland eat Pickled Herring on New Year's, with good fortune coming to those who eat it. In Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, Boiled Cod with Mustard Sauce is eaten to bring in the new year.
Bread or Cakes with Things Baked Inside
Traditional cakes or bread with symbolic items baked inside are a New Year's custom in many places. In Greece sweet breads often contain coins, and the person who gets the slice with the coin will have good luck that year. In England Christmas puddings often contain coins or small trinkets which symbolize what will happen to you in the new year. In Mexico, a traditional King's Cake or Rosca de Reyes contains a doll, and the person who gets the doll becomes king for the day and must find a woman to be his queen. In Holland the New Year's treat is Olie Bollen or "oil balls" which are a type of puffy doughnut filled with apples, raisins and currants.
Eating Noodles at Midnight
In Japan Buckwheat Soba noodles are an important part of the Japanese New Year Celebrations. The long noodles are meant to symbolize long life, and you should take care to eat them without breaking the noodles. Buddhist Monks also eat a type of crunchy noodles at midnight on New Year's Eve, and in Buddhist temples bells are rung 108 times.
Ring-Shaped Foods
Foods like doughnuts or bagels which are shaped like rings are thought by some people to represent the year coming full circle, and are believed to bring luck. An example of this type of lucky food is the Linzer Torte Cookies eaten in many eastern European countries.
How do Food Bloggers Celebrate the New Year?
Blackeyed Peas and Collard Greens are a favorite of Lisa from Champaign Taste. (That's Lisa's photo of the Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens above.)
Maki from Just Hungry remembers New Year's Eve Feasts in Japan.
Black-eyed Peas are essential for Lisa from Homesick Texan.
The Joy of Soup makes Lucky Bean Soup for New Year's Eve.
Love and Cooking makes New Year's Lentil Soup.
Foodie Obsessed suggests Deep Fried Black Eyed Pea Bites.
In Paris, Ms. Glaze will be sharing a New Year's Eve menu, starting with Gateau Chocolat.
It's no surprise that Alison from Sushi Day always has Sushi on New Years.
Akumakan Recipes shares a delicious sounding New Year's Black-Eyed Pea Salad.
At Tezcape - An Escape to Food, Tigerfish thinks of abundance in the new year when she prepares Fried Fish in Soy Sauce and Ginger.
Sources:
Lucky Foods for the New Year from Epicurious.com
New Year's Food Customs Around the World from Daytimer.com
New Year's Traditions from Mealtime.org
Lucky Foods for the New Year from Lower Hudson Online
New Year's Foods for Good Luck from Suite101.com
Blogher Food Editor Kalyn Denny also blogs at Kalyn's Kitchen. She often makes Hopping John Soup on New Year's Day for good luck in the year to come.
Comments
Cabbage and Coins!
By: grannysu Posted: 19 weeks 18 hours agoMy mother, bless her English soul, fed us cabbage for luck on New Year's Day. And we ate it because hidden in the cabbage were coins wrapped in waxed paper. The really lucky ones among us got quarters, and once in a while Dad would add a silver dollar to the pot--real treasure!
With thirteen children, Mom had to wrap a lot of coins, and most of the ones she used were pennies. But the fun was in the hunt, poking through the cabbage looking for the telltale wrappers. BUT you had to eat ALL your cabbage if you wanted to keep your coins. I learned to like the stuff--and to this day I still cook cabbage with coins for New Year's dinner.
Granny Sue
Stories from the Mountains and Beyond
www.grannysu.blogspot.com
susannaholstein@yahoo.com
That's such a fun memory!
By: Kalyn Denny Posted: 19 weeks 17 hours agoThanks for sharing. I love the idea of all those kids eating their cabbage so they could get a coin!
Happy New Year!
Kalyn
Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen
A Southern Girl Inspired
By: MaryFran Posted: 18 weeks 5 days agoKalyn,
That's such a great round-up. I was planning on making black-eyed peas and greens just like my Mom always has, but reading your post has inspired me to come up with some new ideas for the New Year. It will still be peas, collards, and cornbread, but with some fun new vegetarian, gluten-free twist to it - a chance to celebrate another great year of food =)
Glad you liked it!
By: Kalyn Denny Posted: 18 weeks 3 days agoThanks MaryFran. I'm becoming quite a fan of collard greens, and would love to hear what you come up with.
Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen