Cook traditional New Year's food to bring prosperity and good health to family and friends
15 New Year’s Food Traditions to Bring You Good Luck
Traditional New Year’s food for good fortune
New Year’s Eve is a festive time celebrated around the world with friends, family and fireworks. Another New Year’s tradition people love: eating delicious food. But what counts as traditional New Year’s food?
Check out the foods below to get a taste of a proper New Year’s Day meal (you could even serve some at your New Year’s Eve party). Beans, greens, grapes and soba are only some of the side dishes served during the celebration. And for those who celebrate Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year), we have a lucky dish for you too!
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Collard greens
Collard greens are a late crop mostly grown in the South, so they’re easy to find in the colder months. Supposedly greens are a go-to New Year’s Day food because they resemble money.
Black-eyed peas
Beans, like greens, resemble money; more specifically, they symbolize coins. Traditionally, in the American South, beans are combined with rice and bacon for a lucky New Year’s Eve dish called Hoppin’ John.
Cornbread
Mix and match traditional New Year’s food—fill your plate with black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread—to hopefully make a fortune this year. As the Southern saying goes, “Peas for pennies, greens for dollars and cornbread for gold.”
Soba
In Japan, toshikoshi soba is the traditional New Year’s food of choice. The length of the soup’s soba is said to symbolize a long life, while the buckwheat flour the noodles are made of brings resiliency. Part of the tradition is slurping these noodles since the luck from this New Year’s Day meal runs out if you break or chew the noodle.
Grapes
Make sure to add grapes to your New Year’s food and cheese platter this year. On New Year’s Eve, Spaniards eat a grape for each stroke of midnight, with each representing a page of the calendar ahead. If one grape is bitter, watch out for that month!
Pork
Pork is a lucky New Year’s Day food because pigs move forward when they eat. They are also rotund, symbolizing a fat wallet for the year ahead. And pork is fattier than other types of meat, making this New Year’s Eve food both tasty and a symbol of prosperity.
Ring-shaped cake
Ring-shaped cakes—sometimes with trinkets baked inside—are a symbol of coming full circle, making them a traditional New Year’s food. This practice stems from the Greeks, who make a traditional vasilopita for New Year’s Eve with a hidden coin baked inside. If you get the piece with the coin, you’ll have good luck for a year.
Fish
Fish is believed to be a lucky New Year’s Day food because fish’s scales resemble coins, and they swim in schools, which invokes the idea of abundance. Another reason this became a traditional New Year’s food? Fish swim forward, which represents progress. If you really want good fortune, go with sardines, which are seen as lucky.
Pomegranates
In a Greek tradition, families toss a pomegranate against their front door when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. The more seeds fall out, the more luck and fertility that household will be blessed with. Pop yours in a plastic bag to avoid making a mess, or make your New Year’s party extra cheerful by whipping up pomegranate crostini.
Dumplings
On the day before the Chinese New Year, families will gather to make jiaozi. The dumplings are shaped like gold ingots—the currency used in ancient China—so eating them as a New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day food is tied to financial luck. Try making your own healthy steamed dumplings.
Mandarin oranges
Mandarin oranges are one of the main symbols of Chinese New Year food. Stick with fresh mandarins, not the canned stuff—the fruit itself is said to bring prosperity, and having one with the stem and leaf attached will bring long life and fertility.
Sauerkraut
According to German and Eastern European superstition, ringing in the New Year with a heaping plate of sauerkraut means wealth, and the Pennsylvania Dutch have kept up that tradition. The more you eat this traditional New Year’s food, the bigger your bankroll!
Lentils
Italians traditionally would eat lentils for New Year’s Eve dinner. In the past, Romans would give a leather bag of the legumes to their loved ones, in the hope that each would translate to a gold coin in the new year. Try cooking yours into a sweet potato lentil stew. Or double up on your luck and cook these lentils with another New Year’s Day food: pork.
Tamales
Tamales are a traditional Mexican dish many families eat throughout the holiday season. They symbolize generations of familial bonds, as families typically gather to help each other make this delicious holiday dish.
Soft pretzels
Don’t be surprised if you see German Americans eating a glazed soft pretzel on New Year’s. It’s believed that eating a soft pretzel brings good luck into the new year. Who wouldn’t want to kick 2024 off with a sweet (er, salty) snack like this?
Source:
- History.com: “9 Lucky New Year’s Food Traditions”
- NPR: “Chinese New Year: Dumplings, Rice Cakes And Long Life”
