New Year's Traditions? (Full Version)

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windchymes -> New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 6:41:16 AM)

I don't know if it's a regional thing, but around here, you have to eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day or you're going to have a really sucky year. I'm not really in the mood for pork and sauerkraut today, but I'm going to throw it in the crock pot because I don't want to take any chances. And make a big batch of mashed potatoes to go with it, because it goes so well with it. And I like ketchup on my sauerkraut.

Also, throwing money in the door the first time you enter the house after leaving it in the new year. My grandmother did that every single year. You didn't dare touch it, even if you found it in August, she'd screech like a banshee. Seems if you didn't leave the money there on the floor where it landed, she would "end up on the poor farm!"

Any other New Year's traditions? Not resolutions, there's another thread for that. Just little things you do for good luck because it's a new year. [:)]



AthenaSurrenders -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 7:09:00 AM)

I've never heard of those traditions before.

There's one here called the 'first footer'. I'm not sure I totally understand it because my family never did this when I was growing up, but someone has to run out the back door, round the side of the house and back in the front door as soon as new year strikes. I think it's supposed to be someone with dark hair. Something about taking the old year out and bringing the new one in.

Do folks in the US sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight, or is that just here?

(Pork and Sauerkraut sounds good, actually, do you make your own sauerkraut?)



Blonderfluff -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 7:27:15 AM)

My family always had a 7 seafood dish. Never knew why. It is delicious and getting it ready right now!



BouncyBoo -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 7:55:54 AM)

Blackeyed peas. Have to eat some on new years day for a good year.

It is the only day I eat them...

I know other Southern homes also eat cabbage (for fortune), but that never reached my family, so I've been spared. :)



windchymes -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 8:20:31 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Blonderfluff

My family always had a 7 seafood dish. Never knew why. It is delicious and getting it ready right now!


Ah, you must be NJ Italian, lol. I remember it well :)



MsMJAY -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 8:44:52 AM)

Black eyed peas and boiled greens is the traditional new years dinner in the southern region of the US.

The greens symbolize money.

Legend says that black eyed peas are lucky because they were the only crop not destroyed by Union soldiers when General Sherman marched through the south during the Civil War.

In some African American families the first door tradition is that the first foot through your door after the new year should be male and have money in his pocket. I had a grandmother (God rest her soul) who would not let a woman in her house until after she made sure a "lucky man" had come through the door first to insure good luck on her house.

Some African Americans call New Year's Eve "Watch Night" and some black churches have "Watch Night Service." The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect until January 1, 1863. It is said that black slaves in the US stayed up all night on Dec 31st "watching" for the moment they would be free.



TheHeretic -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 9:08:02 AM)

I grill. I started the tradition the year I moved to California, and haven't had it rain on me yet. I'll also make a point of mentioning the weather, when I talk to the family back home in Oregon today. [:D]



LaTigresse -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 9:47:56 AM)

No cultural or family traditions here.

However, Generic Dude and I have begun our own tradition. NYE seafood fest here at home.



ExiledTyrant -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 1:02:51 PM)

I have everyone make a menu of their favorite meal, then I spend a truckload of money buying said ingredients, then I spend the day making the requested meals. I usually make more than enough so everyone can have a bit of everything.

Signed
Deranged Dad



peppermint -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 1:18:13 PM)

I wouldn't think of starting out the New Year without pork and sauerkraut for dinner. It's always been that way, but I'm not sure why that tradition or how it started. I've had my pork roast in the oven since 9 am slowly cooking. It should be falling apart at 6 when we eat.



EdBowie -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 1:27:58 PM)

Blackeyed peas and cornbread in the Southern US (from Sephardim), as both peas and corm were dried staples put up from the previous harvest, and as mentioned greens for prosperity.

Over the last 30 or so years, I've seen a whole lot of other 'soul' foods added to what was originally a sparse meal... The fried tomatoes, hog jowls, cabbage, sweet and mashed potatoes, gumbo, desserts and so forth aren't in keeping with the original folklore.



windchymes -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 2:04:26 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: peppermint

I wouldn't think of starting out the New Year without pork and sauerkraut for dinner. It's always been that way, but I'm not sure why that tradition or how it started. I've had my pork roast in the oven since 9 am slowly cooking. It should be falling apart at 6 when we eat.


It's funny, I really wasn't in the mood for pork & sauerkraut at all today, but I couldn't NOT make it, lol. Now that it's been cooking all day, it smells delicious and I'm getting anxious to have some. Instead of pork, though, I'm having smoked sausage. It's got pork in it, so I'm covered for any superstitions [:)]



jlf1961 -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 2:08:39 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

I grill. I started the tradition the year I moved to California, and haven't had it rain on me yet. I'll also make a point of mentioning the weather, when I talk to the family back home in Oregon today. [:D]



I spend each year trying to manipulate the weather so it rains scotch on Heretic while he grills.



Blonderfluff -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 2:10:10 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: windchymes


quote:

ORIGINAL: Blonderfluff

My family always had a 7 seafood dish. Never knew why. It is delicious and getting it ready right now!


Ah, you must be NJ Italian, lol. I remember it well :)

Well. The NJ part...Yup!! But. I'm Swedish. I'm guessing somewhere before I was born, someone in my family decided Swedish food is just....yuck, and adopted the local tradition.



popeye1250 -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 3:14:51 PM)

New Year's Resolutions?
"Start Smoking."



littlewonder -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 6:24:41 PM)

Sauerkraut and pork has always been the tradition where I am from and being that my family is Pennsylvania Dutch.



peppermint -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 6:40:34 PM)

I think the pork and sauerkraut is an ethnic thing. You are from Ohio. I grew up in Pittsburgh. Littlewonder's family is Pennsylvania Dutch. We all do pork and sauerkraut. People from Germany, Poland, Czech Rep., Slovakia, and that whole area settled down in the industrialized East as they were recruited by the steel mills and railroads and other big businesses that needed a lot of bodies. They stuck together and kept many of their traditions from home.



windchymes -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 6:46:19 PM)

Yeah, I posted this same thread in another forum I belong to, and the response was pretty much the same, pork & sauerkraut in the northern midwest and black-eyed peas and hog jowls in the south. I have roots in the Pennsylvania Dutch, too, if you go back far enough.

I'm glad I made it now, it was delicious! [:)]



peppermint -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 7:39:02 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: windchymes

I'm glad I made it now, it was delicious! [:)]


I made enough for at least 4 meals. It will all get divided up and frozen to make a tasty but quick meal another day.



MalcolmNathaniel -> RE: New Year's Traditions? (1/1/2014 8:54:59 PM)

Pork and sauerkraut is PA Dutch. The feast of the seven fishes is Catholic.

But you are all missing the big question. The question of momentous import:

KETCHUP ON SAUERKRAUT?! ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE!?



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