What are your New Year Traditions/Superstitions (if any)?

[jgoo]

I was visiting yesterday with my 95 year old Aunt and we were discussing traditions for the New Year. She told me about a tradition she followed for many years of washing hands first thing on New Years morning with silver coins in the water. Apparently it was a way to assure no lack of money for the upcoming year. Her parents were from Czechoslovakia.

 

As for myself and my immediate family, the only tradition we have is that we have to have pork for dinner on New Years. No idea where that came from or what it is supposed to mean.

 

Wondering what other traditions people follow or have followed on New Year's Eve/Day.

[tyro]

My parents do the pork and sauerkraut thing on New Year's Day for good luck.

T

[seeker630]

I always prepare a New Years Day meal of black-eyed peas, greens (collards w/mustard greens), pork, and cornbread, in the Southern tradition: "Peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and cornbread for gold… Eat poor on New Year's, and eat fat the rest of the year!"

[ragazzolupo]

Here in San Juan Puerto Rico, the tradition is to throw a pot of water out of a window or off a balcony at mid-night and with it goes all the bad luck and misfortune of the previous year. Since there are many balconies in the old city, woe betide any pedestrians who are actually on the street at midnight. By tradition they get soaked/ or do they get soaked by tradition?

[Cooper]

Apparently it was a way to assure no lack of money for the upcoming year. Her parents were from Czechoslovakia.

 

Jgoo, My parents were also from Czechoslovakia. At midnight we would use brooms to sweep the house out of all the dust/dirt, symbolic of out with the old. In the morning of New Year's Day a priest would come to the house and bless it. He would write with chalk over the front door the date. I remember as a young boy asking my mother why we had to use brooms to sweep the house and not the vacuum, the answer was "Tradition"! Sadly, that tradition died with them.

[Lankypeters]

Maybe I'll adapt this by tossing a pot of water down the toilet. Then have pork and saurkraut.

[Diverdan]

No traditions surrounding New Year's eve, as they were all concentrated around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Most were centered on those things that my parents and grandparents grew up with in Norway and Sweden, and many of them I still keep up with to this day. New Year's eve was never a family event, but one devoted to going out with a gang of friends and toasting the New Year with Champagne under the mistletoe.... those were some very happy days full of good times, good friends and good memories.

[bigvalboy]

Jgoo, My parents were also from Czechoslovakia. At midnight we would use brooms to sweep the house out of all the dust/dirt, symbolic of out with the old. In the morning of New Year's Day a priest would come to the house and bless it. He would write with chalk over the front door the date. I remember as a young boy asking my mother why we had to use brooms to sweep the house and not the vacuum, the answer was "Tradition"! Sadly, that tradition died with them.

 

I like this tradition Coop, you should keep that up, it sounds like a wonderful idea. As for myself, I am more like DD. All of the tradition is surrounded by Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I do go out on New Years eve, but it is difficult being single. There is always that awkward 5 minutes a midnight when all of the couples find each other and start kissing, and there I am in the middle of the room looking like Miss. Piggy, or as George Gobel once said, "Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a brown pair of shoes.

[Epigonos]

My family didn't really do much New Year’s Eve. Now on New Year’s Day that was a totally different matter. My mother always made a huge batch of chile, corn bread, and salad. The food was ready around noon and served to anybody who happened to stop by from that time on. We started watching football games beginning with the Rose Bowl and continuing on to the Sugar Bowl and finally ending with the Orange Bowl. I hate this new BCS shit. For me, at least, it has ruined the entire New Year’s Day football extravaganza.

[jawjateck]

I hate this new BCS shit. For me, at least, it has ruined the entire New Year’s Day football extravaganza.

 

I agree with Epi. Spreading the games over so many days has robbed New Year's of the fun of all day football on every channel.

 

As for New Year's day, I grew up in a similar tradition as seeker. The New Year's day meal consist of hoppin john, hog jowl, turnip greens and pot likker, and cracklin cornbread. I never could stomach the greens and still dont care for 'em. And we were cautioned that washing clothes is a big no-no on Jan 1. The 1st is also the day to go into the field and cut new broomstraw for the brooms. These ole fashioned country ways are a hoot.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

My father was a New Year's Day baby and was raised just outside of Pasadena. So to celebrate his birthday, the family attended either the Rose Parade or the Rose Bowl. As we was in the Midwest, watching both the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl on television was the family focus on January 1.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I agree with Epi. Spreading the games over so many days has robbed New Year's of the fun of all day football on every channel.

 

Count me in as three that feel the BCS mucked it up. And back in the days the Cotton Bowl was one of the big bowls on New Year's Day (along with Rose, Cotton, and Orange) not the Fiesta.

[EZEtoGRU]

I always prepare a New Years Day meal of black-eyed peas

I think the black-eyed peas thing must be a Southern tradition. On New Years Day, everyone in Houston eats black-eyed peas.

 

I have never had a big celebration on New Years Eve or Day. Normally an early dinner with friends on the eve and then safely tucked away in bed before midnight. Too many crazies out on NYE. LOL. In some large cities people shoot their guns into the air at midnight. All those bullets have to fall somewhere!