As January 1st gets closer, the time has come to start prepping for your New Years meal. Here are some tips and foods to incorporate into your shopping list to make your meals and 2018 extra lucky!
Green leafy vegetables– are thought to represent money and folded dollar bills. Whether it’s spinach, cabbage, or lettuce, eating those greens are believed to bring wealth in the New Year.
Beans (like Lentils or Black eyed peas)– are small and resemble coins. By eating these on New Years it’s thought to bring prosperity and wealth throughout the new year. Black eyed peas are thought to especially bring good luck as they saved many people from starvation back in the Civil War Era.
Noodles-symbolize long life, but be careful! It’ll only work if you eat them in long strands; don’t break or cut them!
Rice-is thought to bring prosperity through an abundance of crops, since it is small but plentiful and doubles in size when cooked.
12 Grapes-At the stroke of midnight start eating the grapes. Eat one grape for every one of the 12 clock chimes. Each grape is believed to bring good luck to each month of the upcoming year. If one grape is sour, then beware that month, which may have bad luck! This tradition originated in Spain, but is practiced around the world.
Pork– is thought to be extremely lucky due to how it used to be reserved for the upper classes, now its a tasty dish anyone can eat and enjoy. Their round and fattiness represents prosperity as opposed to weight gain. And Pork also is thought to bring success, since pigs “root forward with their noses”. The best part is that all types of pork are lucky-bacon, pork tenderloins, sausage, ham, pork chops…etc. Eat pork to celebrate the New Year for prosperity, success, and wealth.
Cakes, Doughnuts, and Bagels-the round shape symbolizes the past year and the upcoming year coming full circle. In Greece they bake a coin into the cake, and whoever gets that piece gets double the luck! Who doesn’t want another reason to eat more cake?
Fish-are believed to be lucky due to their shiny scales (representing money) thought to bring wealth and abundance of friends (since they travel in schools). They also symbolize progress since they swim forward.
Here at KSST we hope your New Years is full of luck and delicious foods!
