topic Re: New Year superstitions in Among Friends

New Year superstitions

Group 5 minus 1 — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 15:54:17 GMT

A dark haired man must be the first person in your house on 1/1. He must carry a piece of coal and some silver. ( Daddy had him bring in a dime.)

Pork and sauerkraut for the New Year meal.

Daddy was Irish and we had soooo many.

Re: New Year superstitions

proudlyfromNJ — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:01:45 GMT

My father's Grandparents came over from Ireland, but he never had that I saw any superstitions. Neither did my Mom although she was not Irish.

Re: New Year superstitions

cherry — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:09:41 GMT

Avoid a chill. Kiss your

significant other at the stroke of midnight, or you will set the stage for a year of coldness!!

2. Stock up. Cupboards must be full and plenty of money placed in every wallet to guarantee prosperity in the new year.

3. Wear new clothes. Wearing new clothes on January 1 increases the likelihood of receiving more new garments during the following year.

4. Avoid breaking things. If you don't, wreckage might be part of your year.

5. Let the old year out. At midnight,

all the doors must be opened to let

the old year escape unimpeded. (This custom must have begun in a more temperate climate than Michigan.)

6. Eat black-eyed peas. Eating them will attract general good luck to the one doing the dining. In an effort to ensure good luck for all our guests, we will be serving a side dish of black-eyed peas to all of our diners on New Year's Day. They're flavored with pork hocks (another lucky food) and collard greens.

7. Examine the weather in the early hours of New Year's Day. If the wind blows from the south, there will be fine weather and prosperous times in the year ahead. If it comes from the north, it will be a year of bad weather. Wind blowing from the east brings famine and calamities. If the wind blows from the west, the year will witness plentiful supplies of milk and fish. If there's no wind at all, a joyful and prosperous year may be expected by all.

Re: New Year superstitions

gidgetgh — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:11:07 GMT

I make sure that we always eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day.

I burn a bayberry candle (taper) from start to finish on New Year’s Day also. (A bayberry candle burned to the socket brings health to the home and wealth to the pocket.).

And, on the first day of every month, not just New Year’s Day, I say rabbit rabbit as soon as I wake up. If you say it on the first day of the month, you’re supposed to have good luck for the rest of the month. I’ve been saying it, without fail, since second grade!

Re: New Year superstitions

Oznell — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:33:42 GMT

Oh, thanks @Group 5 minus 1. I was trying to remember that "dark haired man" one over on @cherry's thread. They have that in Scotland, too.

Re: New Year superstitions

RedTop — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:46:46 GMT

I grew up with no superstitions or traditions about New Years Day. We were still eating ham and other leftovers from Christmas, along with a pot of pinto beans.

Re: New Year superstitions

Pandalady — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 17:45:00 GMT

According to my granny, she would never wash clothes on New Year's Day or you would be washing for "sickness" for the rest of the year or even have a loved one "washed away" in the new year. Either way, laundry can wait until the 2nd.

Re: New Year superstitions

lrmuffin — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:07:25 GMT

@Pandalady, my mom is from Germany and I was told the same thing. No washing or especially hanging to dry clothes on New Year's Eve to the day. She went so far as to take the clothes line down.

Re: New Year superstitions

LurkyLoo — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:45:20 GMT

@lrmuffin and @Pandalady my grandmother of Moravia held to the no laundry rule, too- including ironing. And in those days, EVERYTHING was ironed, including bed and table linens.

The pork and sauerkraut was another.. and somehow the blackeyed peas entered into the dinner, too. Usually with stewed tomatoes.

I don't have a dark-haired man on hand to enter my door first.. unless I solicite a neighbor to come bearing a silver fork. Guess I better get busy cooking something for him! 😜

Happy New Year to you all! ⭐️

Re: New Year superstitions

Hooty — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 19:11:24 GMT

Being from the South, we have many, but no Southerner starts off the New Year without Blackeyed Peas, (good luck) a Southern tradition I have had all my life, and will continue!

Re: New Year superstitions

Fiero Woman — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:38:14 GMT

Southern girl, blackeyed peas, collard greens. My Irish Granny said never do laundry on New Years day or you will wash your life away.

Re: New Year superstitions

greamy — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:42:49 GMT

I have posted this before, but my dear departed Mother used to say and always practiced that a man must be the first to enter your door on New Years Day. We always had this when I was a child.

Re: New Year superstitions

blackhole99 — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 18:53:36 GMT

Polish, Austrian and German background and it was the pork and sauerkraut tradition. If you didn't eat it you would have bad luck, I still carry on the tradition.

Re: New Year superstitions

viva923 — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 21:48:30 GMT

wow, never have heard of some of these oddities.

Pork and saurkraut that one i heard of. We no longer can eat the saurkraut so that dish went out the window several years ago, same with black eye peas.

My grand parents mother's side were from germany yet nothing was ever passed along to us as kids. My grandparents passed a young age so maybe that is why my mother never really told us much about what her parents were like.