11 Traditional Good Luck Recipes for the New Year (2024)

FAQs

What foods are supposed to bring you good luck in the New Year? ›

Traditional Southern New Year's Day meal consisting of ham, black-eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread. OK – so maybe you aren't superstitious, but New Year's Day brings with it a traditional dinner which can – possibly – bring you a prosperous New Year.

Greens, Black-Eyed Peas, Cornbread, and Ham | Photo by Meredith. You may not be superstitious, but why tempt fate? Dig into these traditional lucky foods on New Year's Day to attract abundance and prosperity in the year ahead.

Looking for prosperity? As Southern tradition dictates, black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread represent pennies, dollars, and gold, respectively, so eating them together on New Year's will keep your purse full all year long.

If you don't want your luck to fly away in the new year, it's best to avoid any animal that has wings and scratches in the dirt, like turkey or chicken. These birds scratch backward, which can imply dwelling in the past or—even worse—the need to scrape by for your living.

Don't Clean the House on New Year's Day - You will wash away any good luck coming your way.

If there was any corn left they made cornbread. So, theses three items have come to represent hope and prosperity for the New Year. The peas represent coins, the greens - paper money and the cornbread, gold.

According to Southern lore, you will have good luck for the entire year if you have the traditional New Year's Day supper. In the South, that means a meal of collard greens, hoppin' John, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and pot likker soup.

Why do you eat pork on new year's? ›

Pork was believed to bring good luck because “the pig roots forward” for its food, as opposed to the backward scratching of an animal like a chicken. The Germans also believed that if the pork was rich in fat, it would signify prosperity in life, according to Stoltzfus Meats, a Pa.

The combo of bread and salt is traditionally given as a gift from family/neighbors as a symbol of wealth, hospitality and prosperity. Bread is meant to symbolize meals to come, so the inhabitants never know hunger… while salt fills your life with flavor. A nice gesture, but practical too!

Now, if that's not a reason to steer clear of the cloths, we don't know what is! Also washing clothes or dishes on New Year's Day is said to simply 'wash away good luck' and sweeping the floors could also sweep away good fortune that would enter your house in the coming year.

On New Year's Eve dinner, Italians usually eat cotechino con lenticchie (sausages and green lentils), at the stroke of midnight. The sausages, which are high in fat content and therefore symbolize abundance, are sliced to resemble coins as well, calling for financial wealth.

Like other cultures that consume lentils and other round foods, the 12 round fruits of the Philippines symbolize coins and prosperity and are thought to bring good luck for the New Year. The number 12 is for each month of the year, although 13 fruits are sometimes consumed as well.

Master Hanz Cua said that the 12 lucky fruits in welcoming the new year are apples, oranges, bananas, watermelons, papaya, melons, pears, kiat-kiat, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, and lemon or calamansi.

Lumpia is said to attract luck and money and is a symbol for wealth prosperity because of their resemblance to gold bars. Lumpia is a delicious way to serve up good fortune for New Year 2024. Have some fun and try these different variations of lumpia recipes for your Filipino new year food menu.

Like many other cultures, the Pennsylvania Dutch believe eating pork on New Year's Day brings good luck because pigs root around with their snouts in a forward motion. After all, we want to move forward, not backward, in the new year.