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

FAQs

What are the 7 Lucky New Year's food traditions around? ›

Many cultures and countries have particular "lucky" foods, and the southern United States is no exception. 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.

Black-eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread served on New Year's Day is a tradition that is not only popular in the South, but all over the nation. The saying, "peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and cornbread for gold," is associated with the foods, according to AllRecipes.com.

Looking for prosperity? As Southern tradition dictates, black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread represent pennies, dollars, and gold, respectively, so eating them together on New Year's will keep your purse full all year long.

White-Colored Foods are a no no on New Year's Day, foods that are all white in color, such as rice, bread, eggs, and tofu. According to ancient Chinese beliefs, white symbolizes death– so it is considered unlucky to eat white colored-food on New Year's Day.

Don't Clean the House on New Year's Day - You will wash away any good luck coming your way.

No washing or cutting your hair

It is believed that if you wash your hair on New Year's day, you'd also be washing away all your luck. It's somewhat similar to if you cut your hair, you'd be cutting your life shorter!

Pork. Ham is often a holiday centerpiece, but pork is specifically thought to bring good luck on New Year's Day. So why is pork a New Year's food tradition? First, it has to do with the way pigs behave differently than other animals.

Chicken, Squab, or Anything with Wings

If it has wings, it can fly away - and that's what legend says about chicken on New Years. Eating chicken can cause your good luck to fly away, and well - we definitely don't want that. Make that Roasted Chicken later in January, just to be safe.

Why shouldn't you wash laundry on New Year's Day? ›

Another superstition, this is American folklore: don't wash clothes on New Year's Day. If you clean clothes on Jan. 1, you may wash away a member of your family in the coming year — meaning someone will die. Not to mention sending a year of good fortune down the drain.

This is an odd one. According to folklore, if you wash clothes on New Year's Day, you'll be “washing for the dead” or washing a loved one away -- meaning someone in your household will die in the coming year. Get your laundry washed, dried, folded and put away by New Year's Eve.

food-adjacent than being about what you should and shouldn't eat, and instead are about behaviors you'll want to follow or avoid in your kitchen in the new year. Per tradition, it's said you shouldn't clean your house (yep, including doing the dishes!) lest you accidentally sweep or wash good luck away.

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.

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.

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.

Like other cultures that consume lentils and other round foods, the 12 round fruits of the Philippines symbolize coins and prosperity and are thought to bring good luck for the New Year. The number 12 is for each month of the year, although 13 fruits are sometimes consumed as well.

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.