New Years Traditions: Black Eyed Peas!!! Black eyed peas for new years: Eating black-eyed peas and greens on New Year’s has been considered good luck for at least 1,500 years. There are a variety of explanations for the symbolism of black-eyed peas. One is that eating these simple legumes demonstrates humility and a lack of vanity. The humble nature of the black-eyed pea is echoed by the old expression, “Eat poor on New Years, and eat fat the rest of the year.” Another explanation is that dried beans loosely resemble coins. Yet another is that because dried beans greatly expand in volume, they symbolize expanding wealth. Clearly, a lot of people closely associate good luck with monetary gain. That’s where the greens come in (in case I need to spell it out, green is the color of U.S. currency). Any green will do, but the most common choices are collard, turnip, or mustard greens. Golden cornbread is often added to the Southern New Year’s meal, and a well-known phrase is, “Peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and cornbread for gold.” Pork is a staple of just about every Southern meal, so it’s usually cooked with the black-eyed peas. The pork seems to be there for flavor as opposed to symbolism, but some theorize that because pigs root forward when foraging, the pork represents positive motion. There’s no single official way to prepare your black-eyed peas on January 1. One popular dish is Hoppin’ John, which is a mixture of black-eyed peas, rice, and bacon or ham hock. Some people throw a dime into the pot and believe that whoever winds up with the dime in their serving gets extra good luck for the coming year. ********************************************************************* To include Black Eyed Peas to start your New Year I dont think Oprah would mind if I shared this clip of the Black Eyed Peas in arguably one of the best flash mobs ever so you can say you started off the New Year with Black Eyed Peas! This might give you a little history of why the group might have chose their name! Thanks to Elektra Lex for reminding me of this! Happy Near and Prosperous to all my family, friends and students! Luv & Hugs, Henry
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:16:05 +0000
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