7 recipes for a lucky New Year's Day meal (2024)

FAQs

What are the 7 Lucky new year's food traditions around? ›

According to Southern lore, you will have good luck for the entire year if you have the traditional New Year's Day supper. In the South, that means a meal of collard greens, hoppin' John, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and pot likker soup.

Greens, pork, and cornbread, as well as black-eyed peas, cowpeas, or beans, are some of the typical symbolic foods served on New Year's Day. When planning your dinner menu, add the Southern foods that some say bring good luck and avoid those that may do just the opposite in the new year.

Greens, Black-Eyed Peas, Cornbread, and Ham | Photo by Meredith. You may not be superstitious, but why tempt fate? Dig into these traditional lucky foods on New Year's Day to attract abundance and prosperity in the year ahead.

Black-eyed peas: These legumes are traditionally eaten in the Southern US for good luck and fortune in the new year. Lentils and beans: Similar to black-eyed peas, lentils and beans symbolize wealth and abundance in various cultures. Round foods: Donuts, cakes, and other round-shaped foods represent "full.

White Foods

Tofu, eggs, rice, cauliflower, white cheeses—say goodbye to them for the night. Instead, fill your New Year's table with other colorful foods. Greens of all kinds are said to bring wealth into your life, while anything yellow (think cornbread or lemon curd) is supposed to foretell prosperity and happiness.

The South is a region of long-held superstitions and traditions. However, one of our longest-held traditions is that of eating black-eyed peas and collard greens in some form on New Year's Day.

On New Year's Day we usually have pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes because it is somewhat of a tradition in our Pa. Dutch Area, but sometimes it is chicken breasts, sauerkraut and mash potatoes.

A New Year's Day Tradition: Roast Pork, Mashed Potatoes and Sauerkraut. Growing up, our New Year's Day meal was always a pork roast, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut, whether we liked it or not. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch New Year's tradition.

Taking a bath on New Year's is not necessary, but it is a personal choice. Different cultures and superstitions have varying beliefs about bathing on New Year's Day.

What can't you eat on new year's Day? ›

Good luck is an elusive thing, and wings can help good luck just fly away. It's doubly important not to eat chicken on New Year's Day. Not only do chickens have wings, which as you have learned, can make your good luck fly away, they also eat by scratching backward.

Lobster, cows, and chicken are all considered unlucky animals to eat on New Year's because of how they move. Read on for more foods superstitious people try to avoid on the holiday.

If there was any corn left they made cornbread. So, theses three items have come to represent hope and prosperity for the New Year. The peas represent coins, the greens - paper money and the cornbread, gold.

We can really get behind this superstition. If you're concerned about "sweeping" or "washing" away any luck coming your way, don't do any cleaning—including dishes and laundry.

Pork was believed to bring good luck because “the pig roots forward” for its food, as opposed to the backward scratching of an animal like a chicken. The Germans also believed that if the pork was rich in fat, it would signify prosperity in life, according to Stoltzfus Meats, a Pa.

Estonians feast as many as 7, 9, or even 12 times on New Year's Eve, as they believe for each meal consumed, the person gains the strength of that many men the following year.

Master Hanz Cua said that the 12 lucky fruits in welcoming the new year are apples, oranges, bananas, watermelons, papaya, melons, pears, kiat-kiat, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, and lemon or calamansi.

Originating in Spain, the tradition of eating grapes at the stroke of midnight is believed to welcome good fortune and prosperity in the new year. It's known as "Las doce uvas de la suerte," or "The twelve grapes of luck,” and each of the 12 grapes represents a month of the new year.

Hoppin' John is a Southern American dish made with black-eyed peas, rice, and smoked pork, often served on New Year's Day for good luck. It is believed to bring prosperity and good fortune to those who eat it.