Happy New Year!
Dear Travelers,
Happy New Year!
There are so many new year’s day traditions throughout the world. I love learning about all of them!
My grandmother was from Georgia, and new year’s day was a big deal in my family. We had to stop by her home every January first. We’d visit for a little while and eat well.
She would have a huge stockpot on the stove with black-eyed peas and a giant ham hock simmering away. The pot towered over her. I wondered how she reached it. She would give it a good stir every now and then; her arm raised way up.
She would fix everyone a plate, and she would make sure all us grandchildren were eating well.
I liked to pick the ham out and snack on it.
I loved the cornbread she always had. I could’ve eaten that whole thing!
Greens, no thanks. I just wanted the rice, ham, and cornbread. Isn’t that what all kids want?
There are a few reasons people from the south eat these specific things on New Year’s Day. Every food item is linked to luck or prosperity - or both.
Cornbread is yellow like gold. Collard greens are green like money. Black-eyed peas represent pennies, and the more you eat, the more money will come to you in the new year. You get the idea.
Traditions are cool. I look back on those days fondly because the holiday was always the same. Our grandmother would chase us around, piling food on our plates. Our parents would drink and smoke on the back porch. We would raid the candy drawer and run around the house with our cousins.
However you celebrate the new year, enjoy it!
Please reply in the comments and let me know about the traditions in your part of the world! I would love to hear about it.
Have a fantastic new year’s day. Make a resolution for the new year or don’t. Whatever! You got this.
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Stay safe out there, people. Until next time.
Peace,
Kit
My Muama and Nana made black eyed peas every year, with a big ol’ ham hock! Greens were in the black eyed peas so I always tried to avoid them as best I could. Last year I made them myself for the first time. It brought back so many memories and was delicious. bI forgot all about it this year- until this post! Not sure if it’s too late, but damn they were so good last year, I may just have to make them anyway!
As one of Kit’s cousins, it was a wonderful day to see everyone and also get into that candy drawer 😘!