- Eating black-eyed peas and greens, I remember this one the most from other years and I remember eating them. Eating them brings good luck and financial prosperity. You are to eat the peas with greens for prosperity. The peas represent good luck and the greens represent money.
- Nothing goes out of the house, or you will be losing things during the upcoming year. Don’t take out the trash or food or anything, if your trash needs emptying, do it before midnight or on January 2nd. If you have food or anything to take somewhere on New Years day, have it outside or at their house already.
- Kissing at midnight. Kiss someone dear to you at midnight, this will ensure affection for the next 12 months. If you happen to be alone at midnight, kissing the dog or cat would certainly work.
- Don’t cry, don’t cry on New Years day, this could bring unhappiness for the next year. So don’t cry even if your favorite team loses in a bowl game. Be upbeat and happy as well.
- Don’t wash clothes. The dirty clothes can wait until January 2nd. Some super-cautious won’t even wash the dishes on New Years day, I need to go and find the paper plates now.
- No bare cupboards, fill up the cupboards before New Years day, otherwise that could be the way of the New Year.
- Money, don’t lend money or precious items and don’t pay back loans either. To do so means you will be paying out money all year long. Also fill all of your wallets with money since that ensures prosperity for the New Year.
- Open the doors at midnight as this will let out all the bad from the previous year. Now that’s an easy one to do unless its 30 below out, this will let out the bad before the good can come in on New Years day.
- Loud noises, make some noise. This will scare away the evil spirits from entering your life in the next year. I like this one, it makes sense and it’s fun but you need to be careful though since too much loud noise and the cops might show up, and that might not be good for the New Year. Maybe just one yell and two firecrackers.
- Don’t break anything, you should try very hard to not break anything, especially a mirror, as that could be doubly bad as breaking a mirror on any other day, so try not to break anything. And this is another good reason not to do the dishes on New Years Day.
- Work, try and do something work related on New Years Day, just a token or small amount of work, if you do too much work related stuff, then it might not be so good. This one is only for those who have the day off, I wouldn’t think fireman and others would care for this superstition.
- First person entering your home, this superstition is about how the first person who enters your home in the New Year will influence the year you’re about to have. Ideally this person should be tall, dark and good looking. This is a real superstition but I think it came out of an old Cosmo magazine article.
- Which way the wind blows, there isn’t a lot we can do about the weather, but superstition holds that if the wind is out of the South there will be prosperous times ahead. The wind out of the East means famine and calamities and out of the North means a bad year for weather. A little odd but out of the West means plenty of milk and fish. Calm winds means a prosperous and joyful year for all, that’s just great since I just read there is a high wind warning for my area.
If you read this after New Year’s day and you goofed up, don’t worry too much, just to be on the safe side though you can always go out and buy a rabbit’s foot and put it on your keychain next to your lucky four-leaf clover.
Lay Low & Do (Pretty Much) Nothing
A lot of info out there said not to do laundry or dishes (since you “wash away” luck and these can cause a death in the family in the coming year), not to take anything out of the house (including trash) and not to wash your hair. Sounds like the hang-over crowd was looking for a little justification to lie on the couch all day.
Eat, Eat! –
While you are lazing about on the couch, make sure you are eating luck foods:
• Grapes – 12 of them, one for every month of the year
• Pork – because pigs root forward when they eat and we all want to move forward!
• Black eyed peas – here’s a good luck recipe that’s quite tasty and gets you your black-eyed peas and pork all in one meal
• Lentils – which resemble coins
• Greens such as collard greens, chard, cabbage and kale – the folds of the greens resemble money
Many of the foods that are “good” to eat resemble money or have to do with moving forward.
What You Do at New Years, You Will Do All Year
While most of these superstitions and traditions are meant to usher in good luck while keeping bad luck at bay, what you do can reflect how you’ll live in the coming year. Recovering from a big party the night before? Your year will likely include being surrounded by friends and good times. Motivating to work out on New Year’s Day? Well look who might just drop 10lbs in the new year. Cleaning and organizing around the house? Sounds like a year full of getting things done. Sleeping the day away? Maybe you won’t be getting too much done in the new year.
Happy New Year from AthensPlus.com
I’d be interested to know the origins of some of these superstitions, but they’re all probably attributable to people making associations between one action, and a totally unrelated “consequence”.
It’s like a gambler wearing his lucky hat to the track because he hit some big bets in the past while wearing it. The hat has nothing to do with the outcome of the horse race, but not wearing it may provide him with a subconscious reason for placing bad bets.
If you break a mirror, you may get bad luck because you expect bad luck, and subconsciously decide to give yourself bad luck to reinforce the belief.