Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year

I'm not a superstitious person, but, I'm not one to tempt fate, either. It doesn't bother me to walk under ladders and whenever two bad things occur, I have never been heard to intone, "Bad things happen in threes, you know."

The only bad thing that has ever happened when a black cat crossed my path was a sneezing fit on my part, which can be attributed to allergies, rather than bad luck.

But, there is one superstition that I have paid attention to over the years, since I was a small child. It's the dietary requirement that we have hog jowls, blackeyed peas and greens for New Year's dinner. Or, in my case, it was a variation on that theme. Usually, we had ham, blackeyed peas and spinach, feeling that was close enough to bring us, if not great luck during the next year, at least we wouldn't have horrible luck.

It never occurred to us to question the fact that the superstition seemed to have different details in different parts of the country.  For instance, this year,  for the first time, we were informed that we should hang a dollar bill over the door if we expected to have good luck. Well, let me tell you right now, if we hung a dollar bill over our front door on New Year's Eve, I'm pretty sure it would be gone by New Year's morning.

That's when we decided it was silly to expect to have good luck at any point in the year just because we ate pork, blackeyed peas and greens for New Year's Dinner.  No more.  No sirree-bob. Never again would we be held hostage by a superstitioon so obviously flawed.

So, we had ham, blackeyed peas and greens for dinner on New Year's Eve, as we have been told that others do.  We'll see if our luck gets any  better.

And, I'm not making any New Year's resolutions, either  So, there.

Stay tuned.

6 comments:

Margie's Musings said...

I'm not making any New Year's resolutions either, Generally I forget all about them in a week or two.

Happy New Year!

Arkansas Patti said...

For us it was pork and sauerkraut. I quit doing it for luck the year following my divorce but now I do it for it just tastes good.
Happy and healthy 2013 Betty.

Olga said...

My mother used to send my brother to knock on the door of the elderly widow who lived a couple houses down the street. Being greeted by a male first thing on New Year's Day brings good luck. Who makes these things up???

LL Cool Joe said...

I just popped over from Kenju's blog to check out yours. I don't make new years resolutions either. In fact this year we did nothing special on New Year's Eve at all.

Happy New Year to you!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Betty.
I've been served some strange food when visiting your part of the world, but never "hog jowls". I expect that they are a bit like the 'pig's trotters' we used to get here in the UK in "the good old days".

Betty said...

Margie: I have never kept a New Year's Resolution. That could be a record of some kind.

Patti: Happy New Year to you, too.

LL Cool Joe: Welcome. And, Happy New Year to you.

Olga: I have never heard of that, but, it sounds good to me.

Big John: I have never dared ask what part of the pig the jowls are, but if I had to guess, I'd say they were that fatty area under the lower jaws. Ugh. Wish I hadn't thought of that! Happy New Year to you, too.