Traditional Superstitions

Image credit: WikiCommons & Weird Tales magazine, 1941

My mother's traditional Christmas Day breakfast was the subject of a recent article on this blog and today we have another.

On New Year's Day, our traditional mid-day meal includes (but is not limited to) black-eyed peas and cabbage.  A favorite bread to accompany those vegetables is cornbread. 

Unlike Mom's Christmas breakfast (which also featured cornbread), today's lunch is laden with a heaping helping of superstition.

Eating the black-eyed peas reportedly brings good luck for the new year and cabbage(being green in color) brings the promise of money.  

Part of the tradition/superstition was the requirement to partake of these culinary delights at the stroke of noon. There was never an explanation of that aspect of the feast.

While the relative evaluations of events that occur throughout the year are subjective for the diners, we typically tend to credit the first lunch-time meal of the year for the good things that happen as well as the riches of unexpected financial bonuses.

Conversely, events perceived as "bad luck" or financial reversals, prompt the admonition that, "You didn't eat enough black-eyed peas or cabbage when you had the chance, back on Jan. 1."

If you participate in some tradition that will supposedly affect your new year, here's hoping that you get the expected (and preferred) results.

At 11:59 A.M. every New Year's Day, my wife and I wish each other a happy new year and add an enthusiastic, "Bon appetit!"