Happy New Year's

New Year's Eve in Times Square

Hi to all,

So glad to be back.  Happy New Year to everyone.  Happy 2013!

On New Year's Day, my family always eats black-eyed peas, it's our traditional dinner.  Its been said, "Eat peas on New year's day to have plenty of everything the rest of the year"

This year when I was shopping for black-eyed peas, a woman in the store told me that her family ate lentils for good luck in the New Year,  I got curious about the history of New Year's celebrations and other New Year's traditions.

New Year's Day is the oldest holiday, it has been celebrated since 4000 BC by the ancient Babylonians.  They celebrated New Year's on the first day of spring, the festivities last eleven days.  The Babylonians started the custom of making New Year's resolutions.

Around 150 BC, the Romans set January 1 as New Year's Day.  They probably originated the tradition of "toasting".  The host would always drink first.  Because the wine was not as refined as it is today, the Romans would float a piece of toast in the wine bowl to absorb the excess acidity and make the wine more palatable.

The early Catholic church condemned New Year's celebration through the Middle Ages.  Though, some denominations celebrated the Feast of Christ's Circumcision on New Year's Day, ugh!  But once a baby was used as the symbol of the New Year, the Church allowed its members to celebrate with a baby that symbolized baby Jesus.  New Year's Day is still a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics.

Today, New Year's is celebrated with football, parades, fireworks, polar bear plunges and resolutions.   Many believe that the traditional New Year's foods will bring us good luck for the coming year.  The Dutch eat donuts, a ring symbolizing the beginning and the end.  In Spain, you eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight for twelve good months.  In Greece they bake a coin in a St. Basil's cake, who ever finds the coin in his piece will have good luck all year.  The hog and its meat symbolize prosperity and is frequently eaten on New Year's Day, often with the black-eyed peas.  And cabbage is the good luck vegetable, it symbolizes paper currency and in some cultures rice is the food to eat.  It just worked out that I had lentil soup and black eyed peas this New Years, hopefully that will give me a double helping of good luck!

Well that's it for today.  Please stop by my shop annemadethis on Etsy, I'd love to have you drop by.  Feel free to contact me with any questions.  And maybe start the new year off crafting-check out the tutorials on my earlier blogs.

Ta ta for now,
anne