Black-Eyed Pea Recipes for Good Luck in the New Year! (2024)

FAQs

How many black-eyed peas are you supposed to eat on New Year's day? ›

For the BEST chance of luck every day in the year ahead, one must eat exactly 365 black-eyed peas, no more or less. Black-eyed peas eaten with stewed tomatoes represent wealth and health.

One tradition common in the Southern USA is that each person at the meal should leave three peas on their plate to ensure that the New Year will be filled with luck, fortune, and romance.

What To Serve With Your Black-Eyed Peas. If you serve peas with cornbread, it represents gold, and if they are stewed with tomatoes, it symbolizes wealth and health. 3 Although we don't endorse this practice, some people will even put a penny or a dime inside their pot of peas.

According to author and food scholar Adrian Miller, eating black eyed peas on New Years Eve or New Years Day promises good luck, health, and abundance.

From gala gourmet dinners to small casual gatherings with friends and family, these flavorful legumes are traditionally, according to Southern folklore, the first food to be eaten on New Year's Day for luck and prosperity throughout the year ahead.

There's a wide range of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day food that graces family tables across the African Diaspora, but Hoppin' John or black-eyed peas and rice are high up on the list, especially among Southern African-American families. Black-eyed peas are thought to represent coins or good luck.

If there was any corn left they made cornbread. So, theses three items have come to represent hope and prosperity for the New Year. The peas represent coins, the greens - paper money and the cornbread, gold.

This eastern European tradition of eating cabbage on New Year's—either as a dish or as cabbage rolls—is meant to signify luck, particularly on the financial side of things. People who eat cabbage on New Year's believe that it'll help them make more money in the year ahead.

The Black American and Southern tradition is meant to bring good luck.

Black-Eyed Peas Symbolism

"Black-eyed peas are associated with a mystical and mythical power to bring good luck, and many a Southern New Year's Day menu features the dish in one form or another," Southern food researcher John Egerton says in his book "Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History".

Should you soak black-eyed peas before cooking? ›

Soak the beans: If you're cooking black-eyed peas the traditional way (i.e. stovetop method), then you'll need to soak them first. You can soak them one of two ways: 1) Cover them with water and add two tablespoons kosher salt per pound of beans. Soak overnight.

The black-eyed peas are for luck, or prosperity, the peas represent coins and greens foldin' money. The peas swell when cooking, which means an increase in your fortune. Eating humble food shows that you are a humble person worthy of good fortune.

Black-eyed Peas & Cabbage

Others say it started during the Civil War in Vicksburg, Virginia. The town ran out of food while under siege and the inhabitants were lucky enough to discover cow peas (a.k.a., black-eyed peas). Meanwhile, cabbage leaves are thought to bring prosperity to those who eat them on New Year's Day.

“Experts have found evidence that black-eyed peas were part of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, as early as 500 A.D. In addition, the tradition of eating black-eyed peas with rice has African origins.”

The tradition of eating black-eyed peas for luck and prosperity dates back to the era of the Civil War. During tumultuous times, black-eyed peas were considered more of a humble food for livestock. However, they became a symbol of survival and resilience for enslaved Africans and later, freed African Americans.

Southern tradition holds that if you eat Hoppin John on New Year's Day, you will have good luck and prosperity in the New Year. One legend holds that the blackeyed peas represent coins and that green collards represent cash.

The most likely story is that enslaved people would often have the period between Christmas and New Year's off, since no crops were growing at that time. hoppin' John was, and still is, often eaten with collard greens, which can resemble paper money, and “golden” cornbread. The peas themselves represent coins.

New Year's Eve. It said yellow underwear brings luck, money and happiness in the New Year. Blue is the color of health and wellness. White represents peace, harmony, tranquility. Black represents power and focus.