For Good Luck in the New Year, Eat _______

[Girl Friday]

LM, that sounds a heck of a lot better than blackeyed peas!

We decided (since we think bleackeyed peas smell like wet gym socks) that we would start a new tradition and eat shrimp on New Years day for good luck.

 

[Tommy Fedora]

Herring. I don't know why.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

In my family, Dad was directly from South Carolina, mom's parents where from S.C., it's Black Eyed Peas for health and collard greens for wealth, cornbread for a home and turkey necks for food. There's some other stuff for a new job, new baby, etc. but I'd have to ask my mom.

The way it was explained to us it was all wealth related. The black eyed peas (with ham hocks) are coins, the collard greens are bills, and the cornbread is gold. We even put a shiny new dime in the peas and whoever got it gets the best luck. This is all from my West Tennessee/East Arkansas roots.

 

[Kt Templar]

I was just doing some research into old wives tales about giving blades as a gift and how the recipient was supposed to give the gifter a coin in exchange otherwise it was bad luck. (What are you supposed to give if you are gifted a gun!).

Well at the same time I noticed a entry about eating pork on New Years day being considered good luck because "the pig roots forwards" and bad luck to eat beef because "the cow roots backwards". [huh] I dunno, but that's apparently one possible explanation!