Gung Hay, fat choy. Oh wait. Nevermind, that’s not until next month.
On New Year’s day every year, you’re supposed to eat a can of
black eyed peas for good luck. Or at least, that’s what the people in my family eat on New Year’s day. Here’s my can.
I didn’t eat any, though. What if black eyed peas really bring you bad luck, and some Indians on the prairie told the settlers to eat them for good luck and all these years my family has been eating them on New Years day, thinking that they’re good luck, when they’re really bad luck. It could be true.
My grandma has eaten black eyed peas every New Years day for her entire life, and she was a widow at 25 and nearly every member of her family was dead before she was forty.
My mom and dad ate black eyed peas every day of my life, and forced me against my will to eat them too. (Actually, I liked them. It was free will). This would explain all the unlucky things that happened to us. Like the Thanksgiving of 1984. My mom set a glass dish of green beans on the front burner of the electric stove. She forgot that the burner was on and the glass dish busted, shards of glass flew from the dish and landed in all the delicious thanksgiving food that was sitting on the stove and countertops nearby. Now that’s bad luck. There were no turkey sandwiches in my lunch that year.
So I started thinking, I have completely forgotten to eat my black eyed peas every year for over a decade….and I have been pretty lucky.
My husband found this the other day as he was walking through a field. It’s a horseshoe.
So I looked it up in my book of superstitions. If you happen to stumble upon a horseshoe in a field, it is an auspicious sign that the upcoming year will be filled with good luck. Then, an additional year of good luck can be added for every nail still in the horseshoe. There are eight nails in this horseshoe. That’s nine years good luck! I can’t believe it.
Anyway, I don’t want to cancel out any of that lucky good luck, by eating some cow peas that were probably cursed by the ancient native americans.
LOL! Not to be trusted are superstitious. I would only eat black-eyed peas if I felt like it. They do taste good. But you need to be in the mood for them.
I have heard that GOD, our Creator, took care of Every Thing. And this is what I choose to believe.
And the things that we eat on New Year’s Day or don’t? Not particularly powerful. They’re just food.
Just sayin’.
Ahem. I’m resisting the temptation NOT to say something sarcastic…ahem…about this one
Eating blackeyed peas on new year’s day starts your year off with a blast. Just saying.
No, I am not stalking you. I just happened to have the good fortune of being the first one to post. Yay. This will be my new new year’s tradition. Posting first, that is.
Okay, that’s is so weird, because weren’t you standing outside my house this morning with the binoculars? Just wondering, because I thought that was you, and I have this trout that I was going to give you. Next time, just knock, okay?
Just warn me first if you have been eating blackeyed peas.
Did your book of superstitions say anything about hanging your horseshoe? I had always heard that hanging it so the U is upside-down is bad luck.
Yes, actually, I have heard that. I’ve only read that online though and heard it from various places. The only way we could hang the horseshoe would be to take all the nails out to have a spot to stick a nail in. My husband had been duck hunting since four o clock in the morning when we found that, and let me tell you, we spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how on earth we could hang that pointing up.
There is some other folklore that says that if you hang it pointing down, it keeps the luck in the house. Then some old coot said there is no such thing of luck. Whatever. I think just finding the horseshoe is a sign that good luck is on it’s way rather than the actual horseshoe being the good luck charm.
So it’s up there as more of a trophy of our soon to come good fortune.
Yes, I did read, after I posted, that especially if it is hung above a door, it lets the luck flow down into the house. I think it looks lovely like it is! Good luck!
Dand. Rani beat me by ONE MINUTE!
Do you want me to just delete the other comments for you?
Naaaaaa. I don’t mind being a dork.
I ate mine, but any reason to eat them is good enough for me, I love em. Now with that said, if the Indians did tell them it was good luck to eat them and really it was bad luck, that would imply they didn’t eat them. Well look what happened to the Indians. A lot of bad luck on their part and their never ate their black eyed peas. Hmmmmmm. Just food for thought. LOL
I think the Indians got bad kharma from giving the newcomers a bunch of crack pot gardening tips, like burying fish heads in their garden. My father in law tried that when he was a kid and all he got was rats and armadillos.
That could be true too.
Bleech. Why does it have to be black eyed peas? Why not green peas or better yet, snow peas?! I could eat a whole pound of those, all sauteed with a bit of soy sauce. Yum.
Have a happy new year and I guess we’ll both find out if not eating those peas is good luck soon enough!
Just wait until chinese new year. They eat long noodles for good luck. So that’s a great excuse to go eat Thai food. My favorite is drunken noodle and pad thai.
Oh yeah drunken noodle is right up my alley. That and the pineapple and cashew rice. Yummmm
As soon as someone can show me the difference between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1, I’ll accept Jan 1 as a “new year”. (They’re both cold Winter Days..)
Frankly, I don’t think anything is “new” until Mother Nature wakes up for Spring. April 1st makes much more sense (to me) as the start of a new year. (But I think some French king back in the Dark Ages declared Jan. 1, and we’ve just gone along with that..)
Anywho .. I’ll be the first to pun it: they’re a pretty good musical group.
.. but kinda bland eatin’.
Well, in ancient times, the calendar started over in the fall, like in October or something. It had more to do with the cycles of nature, which totally makes sense. Some religions still practice this. The Chinese New year this year is February 10 and it will be the year of the Snake.
We have never had any bad luck due to eating blaceyed peas that I know of but you hung the horse shoue upside down and that is suposed to mean the luck gets poured out.
Have a very happy New Year
Stop raining on my parade or I will send a plague of locusts and curse thee with boils.
Yeah, I’d pass on the black eyed peas, too. But that horseshoe, that shows some promise. Hope your New Year is a lucky one!
when I was a child, black eyed peas were the bane of my existence. this is surely a sign that they were not meant to be people food.
We eat black eyed peas and collard greens on New Years Day… not so much because I really think it is lucky, but because it is family tradition, and it is nice to start off the year having dinner with my husband and my parents.
Apparently a lot of cultures have a tradition that eating food that “looks like money” starts the new year off right. Which leads to two questions: 1) What culture has money that looks like black-eyed peas? and 2) Really? Why would eating ‘money’ be lucky? Wouldn’t finding or saving money be luckier… why don’t we bury things that look like money on the 1st, so that money will ‘sprout’ in the new year? (Hmm… now I feel like I should run out side and bury some beans… if I believed that sort of thing…) And also? I’m now seeing some other symbolism in the whole Jack In The Bean Stalk story…. (and…….. now I’m going off the deep end of digressions…)
And, yes, Harbin77 is correct, hanging a horseshoe that way – according to tradition- causes the luck to run out (but it does look cool!)
I’m Australian and this is the first I’ve heard about a tradition with black eyed peas. My luck isn’t great, I’ve never won lottery, but thanks for my some thing new learnt today. My first thoughts associated them with the popular music band to be totally truthful. Lol As for horseshoe I’ve always been told to hang it so open end points up so good luck doesn’t pour out. Haven’t ever done that either but. .. lol:-)
So Texas! Can’t believe I lived there for 4 years and actually ate blackeyed peas!
Happy NewYear!
In English tradition, a horseshoe should be placed above the door facing up to catch the luck. A couple of others have mentioned this and they are correct, facing down empties the luck (not good).
The best to you in 2013! and thanks for coming by…
Well our tradition is cooked cabbage on new years, I have to actually force my family to take a nibble, but they do. Silly huh
New Year’s resolution #57: Write a comment on all blogs that talk about black-eyed peas. Done!
For almost 25 years, I have eaten pork, greens (a Southern tradition), and black-eyed peas. I have never gotten any luck or any money from the deal. Also, I’ve never done laundry on New Years Day, and always entered a dwelling for the first time from the back door. However, all my luck gets washed away anyway. So this year I changed. I didn’t eat pork, greens, or black-eyed peas, did laundry, and would have entered the house from the front door had I anywhere to go to begin with. And things are going just fine. lol
You are grabbing all the good luck you can find it seems. I don’t do the blackeyed peas things but my kids do. I actually like them though. Finding the horseshoe is a good sign. Got any four leaf clovers where you live?
Four leaf clovers grow in the redwood forest of California. I found some there once.
A friend just told me of this tradition – never heard of it before. I like your take on it thought, and makes perfect sense to me. Nominated you for the Lieber Blog Award http://sophiasvoice.com/2013/01/02/liebster-blog-award/
Your blog is great fun to read.
I’m a recovering picky-eater and everyday is a process. I did, however, eat some black eyed peas yesterday and I enjoyed them for the first time! Cheers to the New Year!
I was actually curious about this so looked it up the other day.
http://gosoutheast.about.com/od/restaurantslocalcuisine/a/blackeyedpeas.htm
me I like them and eat them year round. My brother said that eating cabbage meant money in the coming year. The grocery store was out of cabbage. lol
I didn’t eat black eyed peas, greens, or anything else that we’re supposed to eat to greet the new year. I had pizza and tea…green tea!
oh no! The horseshoe is upside down so all the luck will run out! You’re supposed to hang them the other way, like a “U”, so you keep the good luck. LOL You sure have been lucky with this blog – or the rest of us have been – getting to read your humor. Happy New Year!
The custom of eating black-eyed peas is actually from Jewish culture. A particular sect of Jews settled in Georgia in the 1700s and that is how it became associated as a Southern tradition.
I’ve never heard of eating black-eyed peas but it was an interesting read as I had just finished posting about my own families’ traditions on food and different things we do at the start of the new year.
I do hope the good luck keeps up for you!
We ate Hoppin’ John (black eyed peas cooked with rice) for breakfast lunch and dinner yesterday. Cooking them from the dry peas is very thrifty.I have also keep horseshoes over all my doors, points up to hold the luck. I paint them bright red for Chinese feng shui so the luck really knows the way to get to my door. I am the luckiest woman on the planet. It must be working. I love your website. I’m especially fond of the art on your weebly blog. Wow.
Eat your black-eyed peas because they are delicious.
I never heard of that black eyed pea tradition until today, TWICE, because of the Blogosphere. Thank you, Blogosphere–namely Cake Wrecks and Clotilda Jam Cracker.
Wow! Nine years of good luck… May the coming year be filled with good things!
A few years ago, I had a dinner at my home. Everyone came and we set the table. I put, proudly, one of my homemade candles in a glass jar in the center. About 20 minutes later, the glass (too thin, it seemed) exploded all over the table and ruined everyone’s meal. There was enough, though, and they all got seconds!
Scott
Happy New Year, CJ!
According to Christopher Ehret’s extremely recommended book “The Civilizations of Africa”, black eyed peas where originally domesticated in west Africa (one of the four places on the continent where agriculture was independently invented). So the native Americans can’t have anything to do with that.
I don’t know if they can be grown in our climate. Haven’t tried them yet. In Cameroon where I have just been, people have home gardens and grow all kinds of food things. Beans grow on maize plants instead of bamboo stalks. People have bananas and pineapples and papayas and different types of dark green leaf vegetables (bitter leaf, Ndole, Okongobon (very nice!)…), tomatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage… From what I see on the internet, you seem to be Permaculture-minded. So if anything brings bad luck, it might be that you tried the canned variety. Try to grow the stuff yourself.
Regards, Nannus
My father always ate oyster stew. My husband and I eat 7 happinesses and drink champagne. Much better than black-eyed peas. We’re feeling lucky with so much happiness to spread around, we’ve got extra…
ps…YOU MUST hang the horseshow up, with the open ends up, to hold IN THE GOOD LUCK! like a “u”!!! and if you are smart, you hang it above your front door, so only luck comes in!!! just an old cowboy superstition.
I was home for the holidays and my dad almost forced me to eat some black eyes peas. To people like me it is a tradition, to him it is a near religious event. I kept the faith and did my duty, only to find out that it is bad luck. Dang that explains so much. Happy New Years!
Hon, I don’t know where you are hiding, but we miss you! You are wonderful and I hope life is treating you like you are. If it ever fails to do so, let me know and I’m gonna give it a good talking to! And my blog today is about you. Hope you check it out.