Southern United States’ New Year’s: “Eat poor on New Year’s, eat fat the rest of the year.” 


A traditional Southern New Year’s meal includes ham, corn bread, black-eyed peas and collard greens. Both black-eyed peas and collard greens are considenavy especially lucky additions to the dinner table.

 Black-eyed peas are thought to bring wealth because they look like little coins, in addition to the fact that they swell when cooked — a sure sign of prosperity. 

Collard greens are considered to be lucky because they are green, like greenbacks — money!