I used to think I wasn’t a very superstitious person, but the Ohio State Buckeyes have made me realize otherwise.
Despite all of my efforts (making sure to even cook snacks in a friend’s OSU-branded Crockpot instead of my normal, plain one), the outcome of the College Football Playoff matchup made me realize that I really need to step up my game if I want 2023 to go well.
Luckily enough, after doing a little bit of research, I learned that there are countless ways that you can earn yourself a little good fortune on New Year’s Eve.
Thankfully – just like my gameday buffalo chicken dip – plenty of New Year’s traditions around the globe revolve around eating.
When my family gets together on New Year’s Day, we’ll eat pork and sauerkraut (only some of us are willing to eat the latter).
The Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that our family meal stems from originated because pigs sniff around with their snouts in a forward motion, so the meal sets a precedent to move forward in the new year.
Sauerkraut is added because the cabbage it is made from symbolizes money, or wealth, for those who consume it.
The tradition in some cultures in Eastern Europe follows a similar logic to the Dutch.
They believe that it is bad luck to eat lobster on New Year’s because the animals move backwards, so those who welcome a new year with that meal may experience setbacks and troubles moving forward.
In the Southern U.S., Hoppin’ John, a dish made of black-eyed peas, rice, pork, collard greens and cornbread, has been traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day for more than a century.
Each portion of the dish is a symbol of good fortune in the coming year, as black-eyed peas represent coins, collard greens look like dollars and cornbread resembles gold.
Some historians say the dish was first prepared by newly emancipated slaves in 1863, so including cheap cuts of meat like ham hocks reflect the progress and forward motion since then.
New Year’s meals eaten by Italians might look a bit like Hoppin’ John, as they make sure to eat lentils that day.
Similar to the black-eyed peas, lentils look like little coins and represent prosperity in the New Year.
In Greece, they take the “coin” symbolism a bit more literally.
Their traditional New Year’s dessert is called “vasilopita,” which is a type of cake or sweet bread. The host will bake a coin into one piece, so whoever finds it will have especially good luck in the upcoming year.
Rather than wealth or fortune, Japanese tradition focuses on longevity. The New Year’s dish “toshikoshi soba” is made from long, buckwheat noodles that represent a long, resilient life.
While most of the traditions are good-spirited and make a lot of sense, my personal favorite originated a little differently.
A Spanish tradition that has spread to other Latin American countries is eating 12 grapes – one with each chime of the clock – at midnight on December 31.
Those who practice the tradition of “las uvas de la suerte,” or the lucky grapes, are supposed to reminisce on each month of the year as they eat each grape.
While food writers say the tradition dates back to the late 1800s, when rich communities in Madrid hoped to mirror the French custom of drinking champagne and eating grapes on New Year’s Eve, it was solidified in the early 1900s.
At that time, a group of grape farmers in Alicante, Spain promoted the idea that eating 12 grapes at midnight would create good luck throughout the year… so they could sell extras from a large harvest.
So if collard greens or sauerkraut don’t seem like the most appealing way to kick off a New Year, it looks like you might be just as well off to follow in the farmers’ footsteps and make a bit of your own luck.
-Kayleen Petrovia is a reporter at the Journal-Tribune.