Ringing in the New Year With Some Good Luck!!!!

Happy New Year my friends!

Today as I’m making my list of goals for the new year I started thinking about traditions.  My mom always eats black eyed peas on New Years Day.  I thought I’d see what the most popular “lucky” traditions are for ringing in the new year.  Beware most of them involve food. If you’re like me you’re feeling like you’ve been indulging in that a little more than necessary lately anyway.

1.  Pork-Because pigs root forward pork is a symbol of luck.  We all want to move forward don’t we.

2.  Bang White Bread Against the Walls-The Irish believe that by doing this you will be chasing out the bad luck of the new year.  I think it’s a great way to ensure my waistline doesn’t get any larger.  🙂

3. Leafy Greens-Foods like kale, collards and cabbage are likened to paper money.  So just like the black-eyed peas you’ll want to take in your greens today.

4. Kissy Kissy-Whether you’re in love or single you’ll want to make sure you got your midnight kiss to ring in the new year with some luck.

5.  Black-eyed peas-These and other legumes symbolize prosperity because of their resemblance to coins.  If having more money makes you feel lucky you’ll want to eat plenty!

 6.  Jump Seven Waves-In Brazil it is believed that you should jump seven waves for prosperity in the new year.  One for each day of the week.  Personally I’d just like to be anywhere near a wave right now.  Who’s in for some jumping?  Let’s go!

7. Touching Ashes-In Germany it’s believed that touching ashes is the key to good luck in the new year.  Now this one won’t be a problem at all for me, due to a faulty gas fireplace, I’ve got plenty of soot on the walls to run my fingers along.  That counts, right?

8.  Cleaning and Sweeping-The Japanese believe that cleaning and sweeping is good luck on New Years Eve but don’t do it on New Years Day because you could actually sweep away all of the good luck of the new year.  Whew!  I’m so glad I got us all out of that one.  (You can thank me later.)

So there we have it my friends.  All the things you can do in the new year to bring you luck.  As for me, I think I’ll try to make it a habit to pay it forward and treat others as I’d like them to treat me.

Happy New Year!!!!

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