Do you eat anything special for New Year’s Day? Are you superstitious and believe in New Year’s Day Lucky Foods? In our house we don’t chance anything and will take all the luck we can get. Lucky foods come from many different countries that are passed down over the generations.
Here are a list of some lucky foods and why they are lucky:
Circular foods like doughnuts and round cakes represent the year coming to full circle. Throw a coin in the cake and the person who finds it is said to have good luck all year.
Pork is considered be one of the luckiest food for your New Year’s Day feasts. This is because pigs are rotund and that represents prosperity. Pigs also root forward and that represents progress. How you eat your lucky pig is up to you, there are plenty of options from ham, pork roasts and even bacon.
If pork isn’t your thing there is always fish. Fish scales represent money as they look like coins. Fish also swim in schools and this represents abundance and prosperity. Lastly fish swim forward and this represents progress.
Beans and Lentils are lucky as they symbolize coins. In the south Black Eyed Peas are popular, especially Hoppin John.
Greens such as Cabbage, Collards and Kale represent Money.
Noodles and grains (such as rice, quinoa and barley) are symbols of a long life and abudance.
Cornbread represents gold.
Pomegranates represent prosperity and good fortune. The more seeds = more luck!
A hispanic tradition is to eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Each grape represents a month. If that grape is bitter it is said you need to watch out for that month.
Those are the main New Year’s Day Lucky Foods. We plan on eating plenty of lucky foods. Here is our menu:
Super Easy, Homemade Doughnuts for Breakfast
Ham with Brown Sugar and Apricot glaze
Do you know of any other New Year’s Day Lucky Foods? If so what are they? I would love to know.