Saturday, December 30, 2006 Food for a Prosperous New Year By Jenara Regis Newman
WHY is it that we frantically search for round fruits to place on our tables for the New Year? New Year traditions of most countries trace this belief to earlier times when the currency was not paper, but coins, which were mostly round in shape.
Placing these round fruits on our table is supposed to bring prosperity for the coming year.
Other countries have peculiar New Year food traditions. In Spain, the custom, adopted by some in our country as well as in other Spanish- speaking countries, is to eat a grape at each stroke of midnight, a grape for each month of the coming year.
The taste of the grape is supposed to determine the fortune of the month: a sweet grape brings in a good month while a sour grape will mean a bad month.
In parts of Denmark, the United States and Germany, the practice is to serve cooked greens, green being the color of money and thus eating greens is believed to bring good fortune, not to mention good health. Other symbols of money because they are (almost) round are legumes like peas, beans and lentils which are also supposed to bring prosperity in the coming year if they are eaten at midnight. The practice is Italian and can also be found in Germany and Japan. In Japan, the custom includes the practice of eating sweet black beans in the first three days of the New Year. In the south of the United States, the legume of choice is black-eyed peas.
Eating pork is also a New Year tradition in many countries including the Philippines, where lechon is served in homes that can afford it, pigs symbolize progress. Remember, it has so much fat and therefore, it is rich, signifying wealth and good fortune (…and oops, lots of cholesterol).
I got hold of a copy of the “lihilihi” or good luck charm for the New Year by Renato S. Pono, Sr. It includes, among other things, some foods: grapes for sweetness and companionability; pancit or noodles for long life; a dozen boiled eggs for good health; and pomelo, hung low at the entrance of the house so anyone who comes in must stoop low to enter the house, this to symbolize overabundance of good fortune.
Growing up, I knew about the tradition of eating grapes, though I did not know exactly what for, but not about all these fruits on the table, which are supposed to bring in good wealth in the coming year. The number of fruits we must have seems to increase every year, and so we pay a stiff price for whatever we can get. Whether this brings prosperity or not, surely needing to buy all these fruits is a good marketing ploy for the fruit vendors, and having them, eating them, will be nourishing us hopefully into a healthy year (Remember “health is wealth”? This is truer now than ever, because getting sick these days can literally send you to the poorhouse).
So, whatever your beliefs are, whatever traditions you may have for the New Year, don’t ever forget the power of prayer: may you also pray for prosperity, health and peace. Happy New Year!
