A Lucky New Year

The year 2022 is drawing to a close and for many it has been a trying year. With 2023 comes the excitement of a fresh start and a year that could possibly be better than the last.

New Year’s Eve holds its own traditions; a kiss for the one you want to keep kissing for the next year, setting off fireworks, watching the ball drop, and shooting guns at midnight.

One year, the husband and sons-in-law had a little too much libation and the women folk wouldn’t allow them to shoot guns, so they were reduced to running around outside the house banging on pots and pans with ladles and spoons and sulking about it the whole time.

Growing up in Goldia’s house we always had a traditional, southern New Year’s Day dinner for good luck in the new year. Pork jowl, black eyed peas, turnip or collard greens, and corn bread were on the table. The pork represented progress and prosperity, add peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and corn bread for gold to help ensure a better new year.

I serve the same New Year’s Day dinner as my mom did, although we’d eat that meal any time of year because it’s delicious. Everyone at the table is required to take at least a bite of everything or they might have bad luck throughout the year.

As my mom did, I set an empty place at the table to welcome an unexpected guest. This practice may have come from a Scottish tradition called “first footing.”

The first person to cross the threshold of a house on January 1 is called the first footer. It’s customary for first footers to arrive with symbolic gifts for the year ahead.

A coin is brought for wealth, a lump of coal for warmth, food and drink are often part of the ritual too. A dark-haired first footer will bring good luck, while a fair-haired first footer signifies bad luck.

There’s a superstition that says doing laundry on New Year’s Day will wash away the good fortune of the household in the new year, so l’ll put that off until the 2nd, not that I’m superstitious or anything. Fingers crossed, it’s going be a great new year!