10 Interesting New Year’s Traditions from Around the World

3. Southern USA

In the American South, it should come as no surprise that their New Year’s traditions center around food. In order to have a prosperous new year, any good Southerner must partake in the three traditional New Year’s foods — black-eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread. All three foods signify wealth, but each has their own history of how they’ve made it on to the festive plate.

One story says that black-eyed peas are considered lucky because they were the only food left after the Union army raided the Confederate stores during the Civil War. They left the peas behind because they thought they were animal feed. Some people eat exactly 365 peas to ensure they have luck for every single day of the upcoming year.

Collard greens resemble the green of money, while sweet cornbread represents golden opportunities.

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