My favorite New Year’s Day memories involved my paternal grandparents. Most of the time it was cold outside, and Grandpa would light a fire in the fireplace. Then he would pop up a big batch of popcorn in his air popper and slather it in butter and salt. Delicious! Then Grandma would get out the card table and we would sit in front of the fire and play Uno or Skip-Bo while a football game rumbled in the background.
Other favorite memories include being home with my parents enjoying a lazy day in our pajamas or sweats. Mom would make our favorite New Year’s Day breakfast, Eggs A’La Goldenrod. “What is that?” you ask. Its cream gravy mixed with hard boiled eggs and served over toast or biscuits. Sound weird? Maybe. But I think its delicious! I can’t say it brought us good luck, but it did always bring smiles.
Traditional foods eaten for good luck on New Year’s Day include black-eyed-peas, buttered bread, grapes, greens, pork, cornbread, long noodles, lentils and fish. Depending on the culture, you’ll find these foods served at tables across the world. But do they really bring us good luck?
Perhaps it is not luck that they bring, but a sense of belonging and community. For my grandparents, serving black-eye-peas at a New Year’s Eve party brought their loved ones together around a table of thankfulness. Hands grasped, and heads bowed, we thanked the Creator for bringing us safely through another year. We shared in partaking of the bounty God had given us, resolute in our love for one another.
In a world of increasing isolation, communion around a table has become increasingly less common. The thing is, the Lord provided bountiful blessings for us in His garden. He has provided for every one of our needs. And so, in these moments of tradition, may we look at each person around our table and remember, that it’s not luck that we need, it’s blessings. The blessing of giving. The blessing of opening our table and serving those around us.
May your New Year bring you many opportunities to open your heart and your table to those you love and to those in need. May the New Year bring you blessings beyond your wildest dreams. And may we always be mindful of the blessings right before us.
“They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.” Jeremiah 31:12