New Year’s Traditions

By Marilyn Wells

I simply cannot imagine a New Year’s Day without black-eyed peas! If you want to have good luck for the whole coming year – “ya gotta eat at least one!” I can year my mother telling my children about this required behavior. Now that the Legacy has made me think about things that I do…..I have to laugh.

I really had not even thought about the tradition of eating black-eyed peas until I was visiting with a friend from Indiana and he said he’d never head of it! I was shocked! “Do you mean that you have gone all your life and never even eaten black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day???” Unbelievable!

I set forth on an adventure trying to discover where and when this tradition began. When I questioned some relatives, I heard the comment, “The reason you eat black-eyed peas is….well, just because! Just as the sun comes up in the morning; you eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day….I have just done it all my life!” I asked Nancy, a good fried at work, if she ate black-eyed peas on New Year’s and she looked at me as if I were crazy and said, “Of course, that is as American as apple pie!”

Being in this so-called “Age of Information,” I figured that the internet would surely hold the secrets about the origin of the tradition for eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. I searched every nook, corner, and spider web to find what it might have to offer. Following is a synopsis of what I found:

The black-eyed pea, (aka: cowpea) originated in Asia and is thought to have been introduced to America through the African slave trade. The “cowpea” originally was cultivated for animal fodder. It was during the battled of Vicksburg in the Civil War that townspeople turned to eating “cowpeas,” or black-eyed peas to avoid starvation.

Some folks in the South open every door and window at the stroke of midnight to let out any residual bad luck. They make a loud ruckus banging on pots and pans, setting off fireworks and take part in other noisy activities to chase all the bad luck far away. While they were busy chasing out the bad luck, they ate black-eyed peas in a salsa, called southern caviar. This, they thought brought good fortune and prosperity into their homes!

Some folks still take part in the Scottish custom from Hogmany of “first footing” – the first person to set foot over your threshold on the New Year sets the luck for the year.

Good-looking men and/or women and children with birthdays on the day itself were considered to bring good luck. Other folks that fit the local criteria (new brides, new mothers, the local preacher, or lacking any one of those – someone who was healthy) would travel from door to door treated to drink and good food while they were invited to be the first person of the New Year to step over the threshold. Black-eyed peas, ham, and cornbread, were served to the “first footing” person just to increase the chances of good luck.

Cris, another good friend of mine, talks about chowing down on a rich bean soup called Hoppin’ John. This is made of black-eyed peas simmered with spicy sausages and tomato sauce. Recipes vary, (variations were often determined by what was on hand.)

1 cup dried black-eyed peas

4 cups of boiling water

3 medium onions diced coarsely

1/2 pound each salt pork and spicy sausage (sliced into thumbnail-sized cubes)

1 cup mixed rice and barley

Salt, pepper and hot cayenne sauce to taste

Optional: 1/2 cup molasses and 1 cup stewed tomatoes

Pour boiling water over peas, let sit for 1 hour. Place on the stove on low heat or in a crock-pot/slow-cooker. Add in onions, meat, rice/barley, tomatoes and molasses.

Simmer until the beans are so soft that they are falling apart, usually around 18-24 hours. Add hot sauce, salt, and pepper in the last half hour before serving.

Serve – immediately after every window and door in your home is opened (to let out any left-over bad luck) and after a particularly “lucky” person walks over your threshold to set the tone of your luck for the New Year – with cornbread, honey, and wishes for each person’s New Year’s luck.

Well, it really does not matter if this tradition originated from an old Scottish custom, or an entrepreneurial grocer with a large stock of black-eyed peas, or simply because it is a healthy soul food, but I plan on keeping the tradition alive….just because. Don’t you just love New Year’s family traditions?!

Published U.S. Legacies January 2004