You beat me to it @Magnetron My German mother insisted that everyone had money in their pocket on NYE, to ensure prosperity in the year ahead.
black-eyed peas, collard green and ham!
My grandmother would always insist, “Pork for prosperity” on new year’s day. My Slavic great grandmother’s superstition was that a male had to be first coming in through the front door.
As for the herring in sour cream, my mother claims it’s a delicacy. Never tried it, never will.
We do blackeyed peas from DH’s southern tradition.
For the past 5 years, the whole family (us and 3 kids) has done a local nighttime NYEve 5K, then takeout somewhere as we are all sweaty and gross, then home for the ball drop on tv.
No special foods but we usually have some champagne to toast at midnight.
I’ve got to ask. What are black-eyed peas? And collard greens? And is this a Southern tradition, or an African-American one? (or both)
Growing up in Germany we used to toast with champagne and watch neighborhood fireworks.
Now we watch a movie at home, toast with sparkling grape juice with the kids and then go to bed shortly after midnight.
When the kids were little I often fell asleep earlier.
Both are staple foods (sort of) in the south. Beans and a tough green leafy veg you have to stew for some time, traditionally with a ham hock or fatback (haha, know what that is?) Collards aren’t as trendy as kale.
http://www.gloryfoods.com/blog/the-origin-of-collard-greens/
In my city, a yoga studio hosts a yoga class downtown. There were 1800 people participating this year. Towards the end of class, neighbors put their arms around each other to do balance work.
Collards have a lot more flavor than kale and are really yummy with a bit of sweet and sour (traditionally vinegar and brown sugar or mollasses) and of course fatback, though I usually use bacon. I’m pretty sure that Pizzagirl could find blackeyed peas in the grocery store both in the canned and dried bean sections. Maybe even frozen.
When I was little, my Grandma always insisted that if a male was first across the threshold on Jan. 1, it would bring good luck to the household for the year. My mom, and now I, have carried this tradition forward, but no one else I know has ever heard of it. Anyone out there on CC who has?
So we women are trapped in or out until a man comes in. I used to get my son to run out and back in, just after midnight, when he was young; he got a kick out of it. When he got older, he was usually out for the evening and would be the first one in naturally. If H and I are out, he just walks in first. This morning I just waited for hubby to go out and come back, since we were both asleep at midnight.
For several years we watched the Twilight Zone marathon on NYE. After moving to Hawaii, we started attending the local fireworks show, then hanging out with friends who live near the beach where they shoot off the FW. We’re kind of over NYE now, since we don’t even like champagne all that much, we just cook something nice, get a bottle of our favorite wine, and find a movie to watch.
Pizza friend,
Black -eyed peas are a small light colored bean (about the size of navy beans, slightly smaller than the beans in your typical can of pork and beans) that have a dark spot at the umbilicus. Mild flavor. Like most legumes, have nitrogen fixing bacteria that attach to their roots and self-fertilize the plants, giving a high protein food source even in poor soil.
And yes, Wikipedia confirms early domestication in Africa followed by widespread planting in the Southern states as far west as Texas.
we go outside at midnight and bang pots and pans. although now that the kids are older, they think its rather strange.
its a tradition learned from my dad/grandma . . . she grew up in the depression era and i think that was the poor-mans-way of celebrating in the new year.
The male over the threshold first is a Scottish tradition.
Black eyed peas! Love them! I have had them every New Year’s for 51 years 
I mentioned the male coming in first, also, and my family is Slavic.
I made the BE peas in vinaigrette and they were delish.