Happy New Year!! It seems that many of our traditions here in the south are marked by food but none more so than the traditional New Year’s dinner. While many holiday dinners are made up of foods to show that we have plenty, the New Year’s meal is made up of foods that are traditionally thought to bring luck, prosperity and wisdom.
Black Eyed Peas - There are several different opinions on why these dried beans are a New Year’s staple. I have heard that the eye in the pea looks ahead and will give you wisdom in the coming year. I have also read that the dried beans are used because they swell during cooking which symbolizes the swelling of your purse through the year. Whichever reason you believe, I cook a pot of these with fat back and onions. We purchase a bag of dried peas and I put them in water to soak on New Year’s eve. This morning I rinsed and added the smoked fat back and onions to the pot for seasoning and will simmer them all day. They really are delicious.
Greens – Greens are another food that symbolizes prosperity. Most believe that it is because they resemble folded money. I can’t really see the resemblance myself but they are green so I suppose they will do. We barter for collard greens and I think we get the best part of the deal. We have a man who comes and cleans out our barn for the manure to put on his garden. He brings us collards a couple times a year. We not only get fresh collards but we also get the barn cleaned out for free. He gets free fertilizer for his garden. It’s a win win situation.
The collards are also cooked with a piece of fat back for flavoring. They are washed, chopped and cooked most of the day along with the black eyed peas. Collards are one of the cold weather vegetables that grow on into the winter here in Virginia.
Hog Jowl - This seasoned bacon like meat also symbolizes prosperity in the coming year. There are many opinions on why hog jowl symbolizes prosperity. Some believe that it’s because the pig roots for it’s food and so it’s nose is always pointed to the future. There is also a belief that the pig grows fat from eating the leftover scraps of food from the family. When everyone had a family pig, all leftovers were put into a slop bucket and fed to the pig daily. When it was butchered, every part of the pig is used for something, even the feet and tail are traditionally cooked or pickled. I must admit that I have never tried either and don’t really plan on it.
R fries the hog jowl like bacon and I must admit that it is delicious. I will most likely make biscuits to eat it. Hopefully with all this New Year’s luck, 2010 will be a bountiful year and our finances will take a turn for the better. Maybe we can bring the country and economy along with us.
What are your New Year’s Traditions?
Related posts:
- New Years Resolutions Or New Years Goals Christmas isn’t even here and already I am thinking about...
- Do You Make This Mistake With Your New Years Resolutions The ancient Babylonians are thought to be the first to...
- Winter Gardening: 30 Vegetables to Grow in the Winter Has the high price of food got you thinking about...
- What’s Cooking? Collards and Venison Kabobs Several weeks ago, I wrote an article on Winter Vegetables...
Tags: traditions
After living in “the South” for about 13 years, I did faithfully make Hopping John (black eyed peas and rice) each New Years day. I really do like beans and rice and beans and rice made with bacon and onions, yum! This year I made a vegitarian Indian lentil and rice dish. Serving lentils on New Years Day is a tradition in many culture. I do make my annual trek to IKEA on New Years day. This year I purchased a much needed new bookcase and had my traditional Swedish Meatball Lunch. It was then back to the house to put together the bookcase and catch some football on TV. I pretty much have done this routine for oh about 20 years now.
Wow! Your black eyed peas soup sounds delicious! This past New year’s, my family and I had black eyed peas and greens but we did not have hog jowl…Hopefully, those foods will bring us great prosperity in the years to come! Happy New Year!
These are all very interesting traditions. It is amazing that people still follow these traditions of eating certain foods based on a belief that they bring good luck or prosperity. If these bring such good luck, why wouldn’t people eat that stuff more regularly?
Jeremy, we actually do eat this stuff pretty regularly. Black eyed peas and collards are a staple here in the south. We eat them more because it is a tradition than because we think it will bring us luck, however, black eyed peas and collards are a pretty frugal… and healthy meal. Meals like that a couple times a week mean that I don’t have to feel guilty about the inch thick rib eyes on Friday night.