Apparently, the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day originated in the Southern United States and the sentiment of that tradition is captured by the saying, "Eat poor on New Year's Day, eat fat the rest of the year." A traditional Southern New Year's meal includes ham, corn bread, black-eyed peas and collard greens.
Both black-eyed peas and collard greens are considered especially lucky additions to the dinner table. Black-eyed peas are thought to bring wealth because they look like little coins, in addition to the fact that they swell when cooked -- a sure sign of prosperity. Collard greens are considered lucky because they are green, like money.
While I could eat my weight in collard greens, I don’t care for black-eyed peas at all. The bland, chalky pea was regularly served in my home growing up, and while I will eat these peas to be polite, I’d rather scratch the belly of a porcupine than make black-eyed peas my own personal New Year’s tradition.
However, I have discovered a new tradition I want to incorporate into my New Year’s Day celebration – Texas Belgian Waffles! A friend of mine recently bought a Texas-shaped waffle iron and made me a Texas Belgian Waffle to celebrate New Year’s Day. Now that’s a tradition I can stomach!
Another tradition many people participate in is making a New Year’s resolution. As a young woman, I tried making New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t recall ever achieving one of them. I live better one day at a time than planning out a list of major goals I want to accomplish in the course of a year. Besides, with my terrible memory, I quickly forget the resolutions I make. As for my New Year’s resolution, I think I’ll just try every day to be a good person.
Happy New Year’s Day, Y’all!
Both black-eyed peas and collard greens are considered especially lucky additions to the dinner table. Black-eyed peas are thought to bring wealth because they look like little coins, in addition to the fact that they swell when cooked -- a sure sign of prosperity. Collard greens are considered lucky because they are green, like money.
While I could eat my weight in collard greens, I don’t care for black-eyed peas at all. The bland, chalky pea was regularly served in my home growing up, and while I will eat these peas to be polite, I’d rather scratch the belly of a porcupine than make black-eyed peas my own personal New Year’s tradition.
However, I have discovered a new tradition I want to incorporate into my New Year’s Day celebration – Texas Belgian Waffles! A friend of mine recently bought a Texas-shaped waffle iron and made me a Texas Belgian Waffle to celebrate New Year’s Day. Now that’s a tradition I can stomach!
Another tradition many people participate in is making a New Year’s resolution. As a young woman, I tried making New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t recall ever achieving one of them. I live better one day at a time than planning out a list of major goals I want to accomplish in the course of a year. Besides, with my terrible memory, I quickly forget the resolutions I make. As for my New Year’s resolution, I think I’ll just try every day to be a good person.
Happy New Year’s Day, Y’all!
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I just read about the peas in another blog. Interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteBeing Acadian or "Cajun" if your from the US, we also have some odd traditions on NYD.
Tourtier or Pork Pie is one of them
Originally ‘tourtieres’ were made with large birds, called ‘tourtes’ until these became extinct. According to some authorities, some tourtiere recipes obtained their name from the deep baking dish (tourtiere) in which they were baked. Since the disappearance of tourtes, fresh pork or a mixture of different kinds of meat is used in this food specialty