Everyone waits for New Year’s Day to celebrate it with their loved ones, often with tasty food. However, certain foods must be avoided to prevent bad luck. Celebrate your New Year’s Eve with food that brings in good luck, and avoid the foods that we have mentioned below.
Many of us celebrate the beginning of New Year’s Eve with fireworks, new belongings, funky music, dance, and, most importantly, food and drinks. With the first day of the year comes a new beginning, and everyone begins this first day of the year with their resolutions.
Even though we live in a modern world, almost everyone follows the rituals, traditions, and superstitions left behind by their ancestors, which have been deeply engraved in cultures.
Some countries have superstitions that are mostly related to food. Whether you are superstitious or not, everybody follows old customs and traditions; some are very strict about them, whereas others aren’t. But they are getting passed down one way or another. People want to stay on the safe side, and avoiding these foods for one day could bring them good luck for the rest of the year.
So, if you don’t know about foods related to superstitions, we have provided you with a list of foods you might want to avoid on this upcoming New Year’s Day. Be ready to sacrifice your favorite food for a day if it is on our list. Get ready to enter your new day of the year with lots of optimism and a good year to look forward to.
1. Chicken
Chicken may be a flightless bird but may fly away with your good luck.
When the topic is about meat, most people go for chicken cause why not? Sometimes, chicken is the only non-veg they can eat, and they would love to spend their first day of the new year eating the food they love. But, apparently, chicken, along with all those winged animals we like, can be the meal that could “fly away” with our good luck if we consume it on New Year’s Eve.
The superstition also tells us that winged animals like chickens and turkeys scratch their food under the ground, so if we consume it on New Year’s Eve, we might end up scratching the ground for bare amounts of food, money, and good fortune being in the same place for the whole year without any progress.
But if you are a massive chicken lover who cannot celebrate special days like New Year’s Eve without chicken, this is for you. That means not cutting off their heads and feet. You can have the whole chicken, as it signifies unity and togetherness and can help you keep your family intact for a long period. Some also believe that having the whole chicken on New Year’s Eve means rebirth.
So now it’s up to you to decide whether you want to eat the whole chicken or avoid eating chicken and take no risk.
2. Lobsters or Crabs
For some people, the New Year is the beginning of a new journey. And you can’t take the risk of dwelling on the past just because you had a crustacean in the new year, right? According to this superstitious belief, followed by many cultures, you may think of avoiding all seafood that moves backward or side to side, like crabs and lobster, because not everyone likes to get stuck dwelling on what might have been.
Most cultures believe that you may end up walking backward or get drowned in the old memory lane if you have these foods. You may also not see a sign of moving forward, just like a shellfish. No matter what, New Year is a sign to move forward, despite their past being good or bad. No one would ever like to get stuck in their past without seeing a way to move forward in the future.
Avoid seafood for a day and expect to live a year full of progress without looking back. If you still crave seafood this upcoming year, you may go for forward-swimming fish like Tuna and Salmon. Also, enjoy your first day of the fresh year with other varieties of seafood, hoping for good luck.
3. Don’t Break Your Noodles
This one is a superstition originating from China and Japan, where you are not supposed to break your noodles, whether by your teeth, knife, fork, or chopsticks. Though Japanese people prefer having Soba (cold noodles) on New Year’s Day. You have to follow one condition: Do not break your noodles in any way.
Noodles like ramen, chowmien, and soupy noodles are well-liked in most Asian countries. They advise us to have them as a whole, as short or broken noodles can result in misfortune. Slurp it until the end. At the same time, noodles can bring us good fortune and longevity. Would you want to make your life and good fortune short by having shortened or broken noodles? Not.
Some people might love to have noodles, but the next time, think about slurping it all off. Don’t break it and continue to live a long and healthy life with a lot of good luck and bring prosperity with tasty long noodles.
4. Avoid White Foods this New Year’s Day
In most Asian cultures, white is the color representing death and mourning; at funerals, we wear white clothes for mourning. The Chinese culture has a big NO to white foods on special days like New Year’s. Chinese people may fill their tables for celebration with colorful foods, but we will not see any white-colored foods on them.
Leave white foods like tofu, rice, sugar, white potatoes, eggs, and bread (except round ones) for the day. Enjoy the year with good luck and positivity, and replace them with green and gold-colored foods.
According to some cultural beliefs, we must avoid white foods to begin a new year on a clean slate and to bring positive energy.
No matter the reason, white food is still avoided on New Year’s Day based on their perspective and tradition. So, we might also consider avoiding it this year and filling our New Year’s menu with colorful foods.
5. Avoid being Stagnant like a Beef
You may love having beefsteak, especially on New Year’s Eve. But after reading this, you will consider not having it for a day. Cattle, like beef, feed themselves while standing. So some traditions say that they may end up in one place for the rest of the year. For this reason, they don’t include beef in the platter at their New Year’s party.
In some traditions, beef is also considered stagnant and is mostly avoided on New Year’s Day to avoid bad luck and negative energy. Everyone wants to have a year filled with positivity, and for this reason, beefs are not seen on New Year’s Day.
6. Beware of Eating Bottom Feeders
Most traditions say that seafood like flounder, halibut, shrimp, catfish, cod, etc., are bottom feeders that we must avoid on New Year’s Day. As they scavenge for food on the bottom of the ocean, you may end up scraping food for the whole year.
Bottom feeders feed off the scraps grazing the murky bottom of the ocean, eating whatever they find. So, having this bottom-feeder seafood should be least preferred if you are aiming for a prosperous, healthy, and happy new year or the year ahead.
7. Stay Away from Parsley
Parsley is a kind of herb that we must avoid on New Year’s Day. There is a Greek story where a Greek soldier on duty was heading for a battle when he saw some donkeys covered in parsley. He assumed the animals were a danger, saw it as a sign of death, and retreated immediately.
Since this incident, in Greek culture, parsley has been associated with death and is often used in funerals. It is also used as a crown on the dead body and is set on top of graveyards to honor the dead. Refrain from using parsley this upcoming year, and don’t gift or bring it to anyone’s New Year’s party.
Not only parsley but sniffing basil is also considered bad luck on New Year’s Day. Physicians in the 1500s believed that sniffing basil would make way for scorpions inside your head. Though this is not believed by modern scientists, it is still worth thinking about avoiding it this New Year and being risk-free.
Perhaps, to be 100% risk-free, don’t make use of any herbs on New Year’s and stay away from risking your good luck.
8. Spend the New Year’s Day Without Hollow Bread
Suppose you consider including a fresh loaf of bread in your feast this New Year’s Day. Beware of its hollowness because there is a spooky superstition about it. It’s said that if you cut a loaf of bread and find hollowness in it, then you or your loved one may leave the world. Air pockets in bread are also believed to resemble coffins. So, don’t welcome death on New Year’s Day just because of hollow bread.
Another superstition about hollow bread is that if you eat it on New Year, Scarcity, lack, and hollowness will fill your whole year. It is also believed that eating hollow bread on New Year’s Day may make you hungry the entire year. And you may even suffer financially.
If you don’t want any negative outcomes on New Year’s, then you should avoid hollow bread.
9. Porridge
As per Chinese tradition, they like to stay away from having porridge on New Year’s Day. In old times, porridge was only eaten by poor people. And no one is ready or willing to take the chance to become economically weak by having it on New Year’s.
Porridge is a poor choice of meal to eat on New Year’s Day. No one even thinks about it when it comes to the topic of the New Year party menu. If you want to acquire wealth, prosperity, and abundance, then it’s better to avoid porridge on New Year’s.
Wrapping Up The Journey
To sum up, the superstitions about what not to eat on New Year have been passed down through different cultures for many years. These traditions often come with the hope of a new beginning and a successful year to come. Different regions have different taboos, but they all aim to bring good luck and wealth and avoid bad luck in the following year.
These strange beliefs may seem odd to some people, but they show us how superstition still strongly influences us. They also show how the food we eat on New Year can affect our hopes and fears for the future. Whether you decide to believe in these things or not, they bring an interesting and meaningful element to New Year celebrations. They show us many different ways people worldwide look forward to a fresh start with hope and positivity.
If you believe in superstitions, we suggest you don’t eat the foods mentioned on New Year’s Day. Instead, welcome the brand new day of the year with a positive attitude and hope for new opportunities.
So, this coming year remove this food from your New Year’s plate and bring luck by including lucky foods. Include long noodles, black-eyed peas, collard greens, golden-colored foods, dumplings, etc. Avoid eating chicken or any other winged fowl except for the whole chicken. Avoid lobster and bottom-feeding fish. Enjoy your coming year with good luck and food abundance, and bring prosperity to your home for the whole year.
Happy New Year in advance.
Last Updated on by Sathi
