Here's a traditional Southern-style meal designed to bring you good luck in the New Year. This New Year's Day dinner features delicious skillet cornbread, easy seasoned mustard greens, spicy black-eyed peas, hot cooked rice, and a wonderful peach upside-down cake.
What are your family's New Year's Day food traditions, and why? Lucky black-eyed peas? Cabbage or slaw? Greens and cornbread? Is rice on the menu? Tell us about your New Year's Day food traditions.
New Year's Dinner Menu and Recipes
New Year's dinner image ©2012 Diana Rattray, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Comments
Can you please tell us the meaning for each of the items on the traditional southern New Years Day meal? I know that the greens stands for wealth, black-ey peas-good luck. I don’t know what peaches are for. My mother in law has served this meal each New Years day and know it is my time since she is no longer able to cook for a crowd.
Hi Kim, The black eyed peas are for good luck, and they’re usually served with rice. Some say they symbolize coins. Greens are said to symbolize folding money, and many families have cabbage on the menu for the greens, often slaw. And slaw is so good with peas and cornbread!
The peach cobbler is to round out a Southern meal, so any family favorite dessert would do.
what is the cornbread for…does it symbolizes something or is it just a side
The black-eyed peas are for “coins”, the collard greens are for “folding money”, the pork (not mentioned) and cornbread are to remember to be “humble”. Everything else is extra and prefrence.
I have lived in the South for 52 years. I have never heard of anyone eating Blackeye peas with rice!!! That’s 2 straches!
Born and raised in the South, and we’ve always eaten black eye peas with rice.
I always do collards, cornbread, peach cobbler and for the black eyed peas … I do hoppin’ john (that has the rice and peas)
I have always heard that the pork was for health.
Born and raised in the south too, we always have black-eyed peas (seasoned w/a ham hock or a ham bone left over from Christmas ham), rice and either collard greens or turnip greens (seasoned w/fatback).
I’ve also heard that you eat pork to keep you humble, but also because pigs don’t fly. You aren’t supposed to eat chicken because your good luck could “fly away”.
I was always told you eat pork because a pig roots forward. One wants to go forward in the new year. Poultry scratches backwards and one never wants to go backwards!
I’m from a southern back round and our traditional New Years meal consist of chitterlings,black eyed peas,turnip&mustard greens and cornbread. If you don’t eat chitterlings another part of the pig is okay. Some people say “ugh” when they hear chitterlings but all i can say is don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Blackeyed peas and rice actually make up a dish called Hoppin John. My mom would also cook fish on New Years Day saying it symbolized silver money.
I’ve lived in the South for all of my 64 years and even though I’ve travelled and truly love other cuisines, I always come back to good ole Southern cooking. New Year’s is incomplete without corn bread, black eye peas, collards and some sort of pork. Oh Yea!!
I have always heard Corned Beef Brisket for New Years. Since this is not pig, what is the significance for the brisket?
At our southern home, we also had a tradition for getting the children to eat black eye peas. The “pea fairy” would visit and leave money if they ate all their peas. My kids loved this. They still talk about the pea fairy on New Years.
I always thought that that it was different & there are collard greens.
I always thought that it had more to it, plus it has collard greens in it.
I’m having New Year’s dinner at my home this year… (I’m from the south). We will have turnip and mustard greens (mixed), peanut butter glazed ham (yummie), black eyed peas, corn bread, sour cream pound cake and tea… This is the traditional meal. I wish you Love, Peace and all the Happiness your heats cal hold for the New Year!
I am from Louisiana and am living out in CA now. I want to keep the tradition of my family alive so I will be making our traditional meal. Blackeye peas (cooked with pork sausage) n rice, steamed cabbage, cornbread, and sweet potatoes
Our North Carolina version of Hoppin John is cooked black eye peas topped with a mixture of raw diced bell pepper, green onion and vinegar seasoned with lots of black pepper. The peppers and onions are done ahead of time and brought to the table to let each person top their own peas. No rice here.
Can someone please tell me what is the significance of the corned beef? I know the black eyed peas are for coins, the cabbage for folding money and cornbread for gold. Thanks!
We always had black-eyed peas with stewed tomatoes, and corn bread, and I, too, am from the south! Never heard of any of the rest until this year.
I grew up in southern Louisiana and grew up eating black- eyed peas, cabbage, and cornbread for Good Luck and to prosper in the New Year. The rice is simple. In southern Louisiana where the rice fields are, we eat rice with every thing…red beans, black-eyed peas and sausage, stewed meats and much more.
I was born and raised in ‘dixie’!! For as long as I could remember , New Years Day meant I had to force myself to eat black-eyed peas (hated em when i was little!). A few years ago I moved to LA, CA. I was busy / out of town for the holidays. When i got home early New Years Day I realized that i had forgotten to buy black-eyed peas for my New Years meal. I had to go to 5 or 6 different grocery stores before i found a store that hadn’t sold out of em!! a couple store employees made comments about how they never understood why they always seem to run out of black-eyed peas at the beginning of the year…
I am from Louisiana and we have always had blackeyed peas, rice, cabbage, cornbread and cooked ham. We usually do a dessert. It’s funny because I live in Alaska (my husband is in the Army) and everyone thinks am strange because I am doing New Year’s dinner. My husband is from Arizona and thinks it is strange too. I am trying to keep the tradition going because even though my children weren’t born in the South I want them to have a Southern raising. Happy New Year everyone.
Oh and we also had cabbage. I forgot that one. I don’t eat collard or mustard greens so we have always did cabbage.
I made these recipes for New Year’s Dinner, and they are all keepers. The salt pork (that I had just bought from the store) had a horrible sulfur odor, so I used bacon instead for the beans. Otherwise, I didn’t change a thing. The cornbread is not sweet, which is just how I remember it growing up in the South. The peach upside-down cake was a big hit. Thanks!
Traditional New Year’s Dinner Black eye peas and collard greens or cabbage for wealth or money. Pork for luck, peaches for health. Corn Bread to keep you humble. I have been eating this meal on New Year’s for over forty years. Its a Southern Tradition – although my kids hate it!! Lol
A friend and I were talking the other day about our traditional southern menu and I made mention about the fried hog jowl, and she said she had never heard of frying the hog jowl, but she always put it in her black eyed peas. As long as I can remember my gradmother fried hog jowl and my mother still does it today. My kids love it, so we continue the tradition. Some sort of greens, fried hog jowl, cornbread, black eyed peas. And my friend mentioned rice, which I had never heard of. I read up on it and found out that most folks believe you are not to eat anything white, (as white is the color of death). Just found that interesting.
u said pork (wasnt mentioned)
it is known for prosperity!!
You forgot the “ring” cake which is to symbolize the circle of life and the continuation
I had read somewhere that peach cobbler represents love…..sounded good to me!!…lol
The brisket was in lieu of pork in states where pigs didn’t thrive. (Mid West where it is too cold and in Texas where it is too hot as pigs do not sweat they remain cool by rolling in the mud)
Growing up in North Carolina we ate pork (different part each year ham, jowls, side meat, country ham usually fried unless it was pigs feet “hated that one” they were boiled) this symbolized health, black eyed peas were for coins, collards, turnip or mustard greens were for folding money didn’t do cabbage til I lived in KY (that is where the term cabbage refers to money came from not KY but, the reference) A dime was baked into the cornbread and the one that found the dime was to have luck. Apple or peach desserts to keep us humble because the fruit came from the ground and there were no fresh, so canned fruit was used which meant that our labors would pay off in the new year.
Our NC prayer at the New Years meal I’ll share with you:
May your heart never empty
May your wallet be full
Good friends will surround you
May God bless us all
Keep our health good and our faith nice and strong
May our labors be fruitful all the year long.
It was explained to me that the peas aka “cowpeas” are from sherman’s march through Georgia when he scorched earth but did not destroy the cowpeas (thinking they were cow fodder). This was the major fare for the first year after the coward destroyed the people’s other food sources.
Pork-progress/moving fwd
Greens-money
Black Eyed Peas-luck
Cornbread-happiness
Peach Cobbler-health
Born and raised in GA. 46 years old and this is how we eat on New Years Day!
I’m from the south too, and along with all of the great comments with the black eyed peas, greens, cornbread, pork, my grandmother said chicken wings makes the money “fly” in. Peach cobbler is actually new info to me. I guess I’ll add that one for dessert tonight!
I have always been told that some form of pork is traditional because a “pig can not look behind with out turning around”, so we are supposed to look “forward” to the New Year.
When I grew up (in the South) we got a penny for every black eye pea that we ate. I can tell you that both my brother and i ate more than our share!
Blackeyed peas are pennies, ham is for health, greens are for folding money, tomatos are for the heart and cornbread is to remain humble and know your family roots!!!!
Has anyone heard of putting a thimble in the black eyed peas and if so, what does it mean? Thanks!
Yankee girl from southern stock. An ex-boyfriend’s mom who happened to be Italian always said that eating pig signified prosperity because they’re fat and have plenty to eat. She said to NEVER EAT CHICKEN or you too will have to scratch in the dirt and peck for scraps to get by in the New Year.
I am a Yankee now married to a southern born man. Love visiting NC for the holidays…especially love the food and traditional New Years meal that my mother in law serves. Always delicious and served with love and southern hospitality.
I just read Danial’s comment about pigs in Texas. I have lived in Texas all
of my 73 years most of it in Athens Texas in the eastern part of the state,—I never remember hearing that before. My family always raised hogs
to sale and for our meat, that’s what i grew up on and it is still my
favorite meat. Wild hogs are now a problem in the back woods of my
property and in a lot of the state.
Southern all my life, 66 years young; only went north of the Mason-Dixon once….to catch a flight out of New York. Born in NC and raised in the Beautiful Shenandoah Valley along the Blue Ridge line. Tonight I’m making my family’s traditional dinner with a stuffed Pork Crown Roast, with cornbread stuffing; collard, turnip and mustard green mix cooked with onions and smoked jowls served with my homemade hot pepper vinegar; Hoppin Johns; cabbage cooked with apples and a touch of cinnamon, and will most definitely try the peach upside down cake; normally would do a sweet potato pie, but will try the peach this time. I truly wish everyone great happiness and success in all their endeavors. Bye now, joy
I am a native Texan and still live here almost 49 years later. I am a southern cook. My family is from East Texas where they grew up as pig and pea farmers. We have BlackEyed Peas for luck, Cabbage for folding money or wealth and we cook small bites of pork jowl while boiling the cabbage and each person eats a piece for health and prosperity (going forward). Some people think it is the same as salt pork, but it is not. If not available, we eat bacon. It sounds awful, but the little tidbit is delicious. I will also be serving cornbread cooked in an iron skillet with bacon grease in the bottom of the pan for humbleness (remember where you came from). We happen to use a well seasoned iron skillet that has been in our family for over 100 years. I usually fry pork chops to go with this meal and wash it down with iced tea. I will add mashed potatoes and gravy as well, but no reason behind that part except for people wanting it.
Does it matter, if u have more than one green veggie?
The pork is for prosperity. Pigs root the ground moving forward. Cornbread is for good luck..
Being raised in a military family I’ve had New Years in alot of different places. We always tryed to have blackeyed peas, pork, some kind of greens,(cabbage, mustard, collard, etc) cornbread, rice or sweet potato, and a dessert with peach or pineapple. Some times we lived in places we couldn’t find the tradiional items. The main thing was family and friends being together when ever it was possible and learning what other people do for New Years.
I haven’t eaten pork in over 20 years and do not plan to start, just now learning the meanings behind the traditional New Years meal…..ok so what alternative is there for families who don’t eat pork?
My grandparents hailed from Mississippi and South Carolina. We grew up eating the following dinner every New Year’s Day and Gramma always told us they stood for the following:
Black-eyed peas for peace
Ham for health
Rice for riches
Collared greens for greenbacks (money)
Hominy (corn grits) for humility
And always served with sweet tea and some kind of cobbler, of course.
Pork represents Progress. Blackeyed peas represent coins, greens the foding money, rice is for purity and cornbread is preference.
I AM FROM THE NORTH AND OUR TRADITIONAL NEW YEARS EVE DINNER WAS BLACK-EYED PEAS,CORNBREAD,HOG JOWLS AND CATFISH
Born and raised in the south, and New Years Day is one occasion that makes me miss my childhood home…we use to hold our noses and swallow blackeye peas and collards for the money..lol. It has always been tradition to eat Blackeye Peas, Collard Greens, Stewed Potatoes, Corn Bread, and Ham.
After reading some of the comments, I decided that I was adding white rice. I was raised up eating white rice with gravy, or stewed tomatoes, or even blackeye peas w/ lots of juice…Happy New Year Everybody.
G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised in the South). Our traditonal New Years Day meal consists of pork, chicken n dumplins, black-eyed peas, rice, collard greens, mac & cheese, skillet cornbread and banana pudding.
Pork-progress/moving fwd/prosperity
Greens-money/always folded money in your pockets
Fish – Health
Black Eyed Peas- coins always in your pocket/good luck
White Rice – Purity
Cornbread-to remain humble/happiness
Peach Cobbler/sweet potatoes -sweetness
“Ring” cake which is to symbolize the circle of life and the continuation – Never heard of this but I like it!! – But any kind of cake will due in a ring cake pan!
So with at said my menu this year will be:
Bake Pork Chops/ chitterlings(Normally do a Ham)
Mixed Green Turnips & Mustard
Fried Catfish Fritters or Bake Fish
Blackeye peas with Okra and tomaotes
White Rice & Red Rice (Red Rice – new family tradition – Dad’s Recipe)
CornBread – of Course (Jiffy)
Sweet Pototoes
Shrimp Stuffing
Butter Pecan Cake baked in a Ring pan
A Northern Style with Southern Roots!
Wishing All a Happy, Health and Prosperity New Year!!
Cornbread is symbol for good health.
BLACK EYE PEAS ARE FOR GOOD LUCK,,,,THE GREENS ARE FOR MONEY,,,AND THE DIRTY RICE IS FOR SEX…
LOL re: how many children have to be bribed to eat the peas!
I’ve always made the traditional things, but today I’m trying something new – a cornbread-based deep dish pizza with (no surprises) ham, BEP, and collard greens as toppings, plus a chili-tomato sauce and cheddar topping. It’s either a disaster in the making (will know in 5 minutes!), or a new tradition. Wish me luck!
Thanks all for the info on the meaning of the ingredients. Very surprised about how many substitute cabbage – we usually use spinach
We have a tradition of placing a dime in the bowl of black-eyed peas. The person who finds the dime will have the best luck.
I’m from New York City but as a kid I spent all my Christmas Vacations with my grandparents in Virginia (they were originally from North Carolina.)
Each New Years in Virginia we would have ‘Hog Jaw and Black Eyed Peas,’ and I had to have at least a bite.
I’m 47 now, still live in NYC, and my husband is from Switzerland, but we continue my grandparents’ New Year’s tradition.
I make a ham, collard greens, Hoppin’ John, corn bread, stewed tomatoes, and a bunch of other stuff (my grandfather never ate a meal without stewed tomatoes, and I just read that they were good new years luck, too.)
I remember mentioning Hoppin’ John to my grandmother, and asking about family food traditions and rice. “Rice???” my grandmother answered. “We don’t eat rice!”
Now meanwhile, if you go to New Orleans, you hear people say they make rice before they even decide what they are making for dinner.
My theory is that the Southern States that were settled by The British don’t usually eat rice with their meals, while the Southern States that were Spanish colonies or had a Spanish influence do eat rice.
As for dessert, we usually have Red Velvet Cake. This isn’t anything I had ‘at home’ with grandma and grandpa, we just like it. And peaches would be from farther down South…Georgia Peaches. Virginia didn’t have peaches at New Years.
I’d love to know more about the history of Southern food…why people ate what (very interesting about the origins of Black Eyed Peas!)
Thanks for this! Fun!
Happy New Year, Everyone!
Hog Jawl & Ham for Happiness
Blackeye Peas for Peace
Collard Greens (with the Hog Jawl) for Cash
Rice for riches (some riches aren’t money)
That’s how its done from REAL southern native people with roots from Louisiana, Texas and old school dirt road Florida.
“Hog Jawl” is a type of bacon – you can imagine some country dude saying it. I am not a country dude, but lived in the south my whole life.
This can be shared with cornbread, which is not sweet EVER.
Sweet cornbread is what we call corn “cake”. That’s not cornbread.
Forgot the cornbread this year – its hard to do all this cookin’ when your managing several websites and doing custom design online. Lapel Pin Design is what I do so if I have a good year I will let ya’al know! LOL.
I don’t think cornbread symbolizes anything, so maybe my lapel pin designs will be nice enough to make everyone happy.
I have always been told that the peas were for friendships as you never find a pea in a pod by itself
New Years Food
Pork – Slaughtered in the winter so it is fresh REMINDER TO BE HUMBLE FOR THE GIFTS THAT GOD HAS GRACED US WITH
Cabbage or Greens – Winter crops so they are fresh also. REMINDER OF FOLDING MONEY – CROPS OF CABBAGE AND GREENS ARE GOING TO MARKET ABOUT THIS TIME.
Black eyed Peas – Still plentiful from summer harvest. REMINDER OF COINS BECAUSE THE WINTER IS NOT OVER AND FARMERS HAVE TO WATCH SPENDING.
I grew up in the northeast but was born in the Acores, Portugal. Our traditional New Years Day meal was pork, fried sweet potatoes, kale (collard greens), baked beans and always a dessert of some kind.
black eyes luck,greens money,pork health peach cake happy
Mike Duggan, respectfully, where in the South have you lived… Blackeyed peas and rice are a staple in the south, especially real southern cities like Charleston, SC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoppin'_John
Pork – To go foward in the new year, fo they root in one direction
Peas – Prosperity, coins or old year has made a full circle
Greens – Folded money
Cornbread – Humble
Gold or Silver money baked in cake – You will have luck
Prosperity, Money, Humbly & Luck
Happy New Year 2013
Blackeyed peas from the garden and rice or hoppin’ john is always on our New Years menu.
I saw a program I think it was on the Discovery channel about the battle of Vicksburg,Ms.The Confederate army ran out of food supplies so they ate cow peas(blackeyed peas)I don,t remember how long the seige lasted,but had they held on two more days reinforcement troops were right across the Mississippi River.A messenger arrived two days after they surrendered.This could have changed the course of the war and the South might have won.Anyway;that is why southerners believe they bring good luck,but apparently not soon enough for Vicksburg.
My family also ate sliced cooked carrots- symbolic for “coins”. I am born and raised NC. Anyone else heard of this?
I was raised in the Northeast. New Years for us was sour cabbage, with spare ribs, mashed potatos, green beans, creamed stewed tomatos, biscuits. and a spice ring with raisins and cream cheese topping
I’m from Cincinnati Ohio our dinner includes :
Sausage Cabbage Rolls
Boiled cabbage
Pork ribs
Black eyed peas
Sour kraut
Dessert ( any favorite)
I have been trying (for quite a few years now) to track down a good ol Southern Peach Cobbler recipe. The one with the thick crust. Nobody seems to know how to prepare it that way anymore. Most of the elders in the family are gone and I cant find a person who knows what I’m talking about. Can anyone help me? Does anyone remember the true cobblers with the thick crusts?
Here are a couple pages that explain the food choices:
http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2008/12/new-year-traditional-southern-foods.html
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/newyearsday/luckyfoods
I’ll be having colard greens with bacon, red beans and rice, and pork sausage
I have a recipe for an old fashioned blackberry cobbler–you could adapt it for use with peaches (water might need adjusting).
Warm 2-3 cups fruit with 1 cup of sugar.
Melt one stick of butter in a 9 x 13 pan (like Pyrex) in a 350 degree oven.
Make batter in a bowl: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 t. baking powder, and 1/2 cup milk.
Pour the batter over the melted butter. Pour the fruit over the batter. Pour 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water over the top. Bake until browned. (The dough will rise to cover the fruit).
I hope this is what you wanted. I got it from a country woman in Hackett, AR.
Born and raised in South Louisiana and this meal has been a New Year’s family tradition as long as I can remember.
Pork Roast (butt or shoulder, much more moist/tender)
Smothered cabbage with pork sausage/tasso
Black eyed peas
Cornbread
Pecan Pie
Whatever your tradition is … enjoy it and have a prosperous, healthy and joyful life !
Yall are irritating me a little bit with this rice business. Obviously some people eat it with their black eyed peas, but coming to this website was the first I’d ever heard of it. I am from Georgia and I have never in my life eaten black eyed peas with rice. My family does like to pour it over our cornbread though. Best leftovers ever.
Born and raised in Kentucky….this is what I grew up with for New Year day dinner……have it every year….live in Arizona now….
black eyed peas
mashed potatoes
collard greens
sauerkraut and kielbasa
corn bread
You all are so lost…. BLACK EYED PEAS are made in a variety of ways in the south. If it is eaten with rice and a mixture of other spices and ingredients such as diced tomatoes, cracked pepper, onions and so on it is called HOPPING JOHN or SOME FORM of a SUCCATASH you can also use pinto beans. SOME PEOPLE eat Black eyed peas with ham hocks which are cooked with the beans for flavor WHILE SOME PEOPLE use neck bones IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE SOUTHERNERS TASTE AND CUSTOM. I was born in the south and one of my parent’s was from North Caroline while the other was from South Carolina and as Flight Attendant and a BIG FOODY traveling all over America I’ve had black eyed peas in a variety of ways. In some parts of Memphis they fry the beans and they are delicious, some people like them swimming in melted cheese, but the whole point is there is no strikes when it comes to food