- Here are the dos and don’ts for your New Year’s party.
The New Year is a time for a new start. We leave behind last year’s baggage and look to a brighter future while having a good meal and some drinks with family and friends.
Be careful about what you eat, though. You just might ruin your entire new year before it even starts by putting the wrong thing in your mouth.
Or that’s what some people believe, anyway. Here are nine superstitions from around the globe about what you should and shouldn’t do with food at the New Year’s party.
1. Eat Herring for Prosperity
Herring is a common dish served at a New Year’s meal in the Nordic countries, the Baltics, and Poland. It’s all because of the fish’s appearance.
Herring’s pretty silvery color is taken to be a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Combine that with the abundance of herring in the region and it’s easy to see why people would think plenty of herring means plenty of everything.
If you’d like to introduce herring to your New Year’s party, you have a lot of options. You could serve pickled herring, rollmops (herring fillet rolled around a pickle and onion), fried herring, or even maatjesherring — near-raw herring eaten you’re supposed to eat by holding it above your mouth.
2. Don’t Empty Your Plate
Whatever you eat at New Year’s, you shouldn’t eat all of it. Joining the Clean Plate Club may ruin your chances for a prosperous new year.
The logic is that having more than enough to eat at the party translates to having plenty of food and wealth the next year as well. We can’t guarantee that leaving leftovers will bring you fortune — but are you ready to risk it?
3. Long Noodles Bring Long Life
In Japan, it’s a common practice to serve long noodles, such as soba noodles, at New Year’s celebrations. The length of the noodles represents longevity and eating them is supposed to lead to a long and successful life.
There’s a catch, though. You have to slurp the noodles down without breaking or biting through them at any point.
You don’t want to chomp through your more or less literal lifeline, do you?
4. Doughnuts Keep Evil Spirits from Gutting You
In the Netherland, oliebollen (literally “oil balls”) are typically served at New Year’s parties. These deep-fried dough balls are a type of beignet or doughnut and they’re definitely not for those on a diet.
That said, there’s a good reason for their greasiness. Dutch folklore tells of an evil sword-wielding spirit called Perchta that comes around just before the New Year.
If you’ve been good, she’ll give you a silver coin; if you’ve been bad, she’ll unceremoniously gut you with her sword. That is, unless you’ve eaten so many oliebollen that the grease makes her sword harmlessly slide off your belly.
5. Pass No Knives on New Year’s
Speaking of swords, knives, and other cutlery, you should be even more careful than usual with them on New Year’s. You should especially avoid passing them directly to another person.
In many cultures around the world, passing a knife to someone at New Year can sever your ties with that person over the coming year. So, if you need to pass a knife, put it down on the table and tell the recipient to pick it up themselves.
It might be a bit rude, but it’s better than the alternative.
6. Chicken Keeps You Stuck in the Past
One dish you shouldn’t serve at New Year’s is chicken, or any other fowl that scratches the dirt while foraging for food. The reason behind the belief is two-fold.
First of all, birds have wings. Eating fowl at New Year’s might make your luck fly away, so it’s best to avoid them.
Additionally, chickens kick dirt backward while feeding, which could leave you stuck on past grievances. You might even end up barely scraping by like the bird, so leave those chicken wings off your table.
7. Bottom-Feeders Make You Like Them
Like chicken, any seafood that feeds around the bottom is bad news on New Year’s. That includes shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, and fish like cod and halibut.
The logic behind the belief is pretty simple. These marine creatures get by while scavenging for scraps on the bottom of the world.
Eat them at the party and you might encounter the same fate in the coming year.
8. Avoid Doing the Dishes (or Any Other Chores)
The party’s over and your house is a bit of a mess — there are dirty dishes, full trash cans, and other remnants of the good times all over the place. Still, it’s best to sit back and wait until the next day to clean up.
Doing dishes or any other chores as the year changes could jinx your luck. You just might end up doing nothing but those menial tasks for the coming year.
Another superstition states that you may wash away your luck with the scraps of food. Whichever the case, play it safe and leave cleaning for later.
9. Eat 12 Grapes for Good Luck
Spain, Portugal, and some Latin American countries have a fascinating New Year’s tradition. They prepare 12 grapes just before the year comes to an end.
As midnight strikes, you’re supposed to quickly chow down those grapes, one at each toll of the bell. If you succeed, your good luck for the next year is virtually guaranteed.
If you choke, though, you’re going to have a bad time. That is, even after you dislodge the grape from your throat.