New Year's Superstition
 

I know that we have heard superstitions for the New Year at one time or another. Some of them are funny. I'll start. Feel free to add to the list.

Make sure that you eat collard greens on January 1st and that will insure that you will have money in the new year.

Do not wash clothes on January 1st because you will wash someone out of the family.


I know that there are more but I'll have to call my mother to get the rest of them.

Re: New Year's Superstition
 

I have never heard of eating collard greens. In the South, we eat cabbage and black eyed peas.

Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

From the North or Mighty Midwest, lol, and it is cabbage and blackeyed peas as well. I never ever eat the B E P. UGH

Ewww. Can we just substitute spinach for collards/cabbage and peanuts for black eyed peas?

Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

In SC it's greens and hoppin' johns. Or at least in Charleston.

if you eat collards, then you will have money for the new year.
if you eat black eyed peas, that will be good luck.

Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

Where in the South are you 'cause in Gaw-juh we eat greens, black eyed peas and some type of pork, usually ham hocks in the greans and peas!

My mother in law (who is in Ohio) believes that the first one to visit in the new year should be man.

My mother said no washing on the last day or the first day of the year. She also believed that you should not have dirty clothes in your house on the last day of they year, so the 30th was always spent washing everying in sight.

In DC as far as I know its black eyed peas. Black eyed peas are the worst. My granny usually makes them. I think I'll be eating Chipotle that day.

Yeah I am familiar with the no washing clothes (trust me there are some family members I wouldn't mind washing out) :D Mom won't vaccum on New Years either

(I don't pay much mind to this one)

Definitely gotta have black eyed peas or some type of greens

Re: Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

My mother believes the same.:o :(

That superstition just rang a bell.

Back in HS, I spent the New Years holiday at my best friend's house and when 12:00AM came the only man that was in the house was her mom's b/f who was sound asleep. Her mom woke him, made him go out the back door and come in through the front door to satisfy the superstition.

Re: Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

New Orleans....

My family adheres to the black-eyed peas thing but I would just as soon as vomit than to eat them!

My own superstition is that my house (including laundry and dishes) should be clean bringing in the new year. Same thing about new clothing for the first day of school or first day at a new job.

Not that I am not clean any other time but sometimes you have those pesky bathrooms and other miscellaneous chores hanging around.

Oh, well, I better get to cleaning :cool:

Well my Mom, and only her cause I'm not touching them, definitely eats black eyed peas and she also does the funniest thing, I have never seen or heard about anyone else doing. She holds a dollar bill in her hand as she is eating them lol. She says it will bring you money in the new year. Also my friends grandmother told us that if a white man comes to your door on New Years day you should kill him dead (she lives in the south). She said that if he enters the house he will take all your money and luck for the year. She went on to tell us that one new years day a white man had the nerve to come on her front porch. She said that she never knew who he was or what he wanted cause she grabbed her shot gone and shot at him until he was out of her yard. ROTFLMAO

hot dayum @ crimsonARMor's mom!! lololol:eek: :eek: :D :p :p

None of the superstitions mean a thing to me. I have heard and tried them all (ones posted here and those that aren't). Guess what? I'm still broke. I'm still single. My luck is still the same.

The only thing that works for me is prayer.

Re: Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

Yep! My husand's family never heard of this either, but we did it every year in Orangeburg!

The collards (seasoned w/ hamhocks) are for money (greens :D ) and the black-eyed peas (hoppin' johns) are for luck! Cook 'em up, watch the ball drop, and eat at 12 am - Yummy!

The good ol' days...

*Sigh*

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That's too funny. I can imagine the look on that man's face....

I certainly don't put any stock in the superstitions, but do them out of tradition. It connects me to those that came before me and I like that.

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Part of my family is Scottish. It's Scottish tradition that the first person to set foot in your house after midnight on New Year's Day should be a tall, dark man. Generally, there are a few such men living in any given village or town, and they will go door-to-door to their neighbors and friends and cross their thresholds. At each house, they usually get a drink of whisky. By the end of the night they are pretty happy ;)

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My daddy was the designated "first step into the house" person, as he had BLACK hair!

I agree. It's the tradition, not the superstition.

I've heard through my family that it is bad luck to keep your Christmas tree up past New Years's. There have been plenty of New Year's Eve that we have scrambled to take our stuff down.

Hopping John's and greens---yum!:D We also have cook pork chops and chitlings with our meal.:D

Now see, my family considers it bad luck to take down the tree before Little Christmas (January 6). Why its called Little Christmas or what is celebrated, I don't know. I just know it gives me some breathing room after the Christmas rush.

January 6 is Epiphany, the last of the 12 days of Christmas. It signifies the arrival of the Three Wise Men with their gifts for the baby Jesus.

Some people exchange gifts on Epiphany, not Christmas.

I've never heard it called Little Christmas before, though...

Yeah, my family does

Cabbage (for money)
Pork...NO CHICKEN (because pigs push forward to eat and chicken scratch backwards...symbolizing forward movement in life)
Black Eyed Peas (Something about some sailors on a boat and they survived through the new year eating only black eyes peas...GROSS)
First person in the house has to be a man
No Christmas Tree
Clean house and no laundry on the 1st

Me too! I thought my Mom was the only one. :rolleyes:

OK, in addition to the ones you've listed...

-The first person to enter your home in the new year should be a man, otherwise it is bad luck

-Do not put up a new calendar until New Year's day - - - again, bad luck

-However you bring in the new year, is representative of how you will spend the majority of the following year. So, in the company of friends...then so be it in 2006. Sloppy drunk, then so be it in 2006...:D

instead of cabbage we do sauerkraut (same thing basically) plus my mom's side of the family has a chunk of pennsylvania dutch...

- marissa

Oh yeah...

my best friends dad says You have to have money in your pocket (wallet, etc) when the new year comes in...And he's usually a very stingy man, but nice man. He's good to be around on new year's eve while he's drunk passing out $50 bills to everyone :D

Must be something to those traditions, I was at the store the other day and could hardly get through to the collard green section in the store! One Lady was loading up on them! I also heard that if you put a collard green leaf in your wallet you will have money all year!

One that I've heard is what ever you bring in the New Years doing, you'll be doing for the rest of the year.

In other words,

~if you're running late for the New Years count down, you'll probably be running late for the rest of the year.

~if you're sleeping, you'll probably sleep more this year than you did last year.

etc., etc...

I don't know how true it is, but it's one that I've heard since I was a little girl.

Well, I guess I'll be getting lots of rest in 06 because that's exactly what I was doing at midnight.

I listened to my granny and did not do any laundry, ate my black eyed peas, had money in my purse, and I'm still waiting for a man to be the first person to cross my threshold. (I guess it'll be the UPS man when he brings the childperson's Christmas gifts that ex-hubby sent)

Re: Re: Re: New Year's Superstition
 

My family is from S.C. and Miss and its collard greens and blackeyed peas for the first dinner.

LOL!:D

I was in church, praising God. So hopefully that is how my year will be. :)

I like this thread! I was fortunate to have my brother-in-law show up unexpectantly on New Year's Day (who is a handsome, dark man, not that tall though) . As for Little Christmas, never heard of it! I have often kept up a tree past New Years for some unknown reason. This year I just don't know why but I can't take my tree down. I think I just like the way it looks! I think I will take it down on Jan. 6 and celebrate "Little Christmas" then and have some egg nog ;)

I never heard of the collard greens and money thing but I have heard of black eyed peas and good luck. I cook blackeyed peas on New Years and throughout the year. Shame on those of you who don't like them! :p