New Year's foods are dishes traditionally eaten for luck in the coming year. Many traditional New Year dishes revolve around the food's resemblance to money or to its appearance symbolizing long life, such as long noodles or strands of sauerkraut. Sweets, symbolizing a sweet new year, are often given or consumed. Some cultures and religions have evolved complex food traditions associated with the new year.
History The winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere was viewed as the demarcation point between one year and the next, and was traditionally a cause of feasting and celebration. Feasting during this period symbolized prosperity in the coming year. In Europe multiple pre-Christian festivals observed between the end of October and January such as Saturnalia, Hogmanay, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, and Kalends of January were held to ensure the return of the Sun, and they typically required feasting, gift-giving, and partying. In early Christianity these were converted into Christian feast days such as Halloween, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, St, Martin's Day, St. Clement's Day, St. Catherine's Day, St. Andrew's Day, St. Nicholas's Day, St. Lucia's Day, St. Thomas the Apostle's Day, and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which started with Christmas Eve and ended with the Epiphany.
The Germanic New Year and Festival of the Yule has been celebrated from mid-November through early January from pre-Christian times. Eating and drinking are central to the celebrations. In 567 CE the Second Council of Tours designated the days from Christmas Eve to the Epiphany as a feast period, which eventually was made into law in 877 as the Twelve Days of Christmas by Alfred the Great. In the 8th century Bede referred to the extended period of feasting as Giuli.
The rituals of the extended festival surrounding January 1, including the traditional foods and hospitality required, served to build community.
Symbolism The tradition behind eating certain foods on New Year's Eve or on New Year's Day (and sometimes at the stroke of midnight) is the belief that eating these foods will ensure the coming year will be a good one and the superstition that not eating those foods will leave one vulnerable to bad luck.
Many foods and dishes are symbolic of long life, good luck, abundance, and prosperity in various cultures and traditions. Green foods symbolize cash in places where paper money is green, long foods such as noodles or stranded foods such as sauerkraut to symbolize a long life, disk-shaped to symbolize coins, and gold- or silver-colored foods to symbolize precious metals and therefore prosperity. Fish and pigs move forward, so eating them is considered to represent progress, and in general pigs are considered lucky and silver-skinned fish as symbolic of money in multiple cultures. Foods that are ring-shaped, such as bundt cakes, are considered to represent a full circle of luck. Honey is considered symbolic of a sweet year to come; multiple traditions give and consume sweets. It is common to value feasting at the New Year, whenever it is celebrated, as many cultures believe what happens on New Year's Day is a portent for the entire year, and a large meal is symbolic of a bountiful year without hunger.
Beverages also are considered symbolic. Champagne is considered symbolic of prosperity.
By religion
Baha'i
No Ruz is one of nine Baha'i holy days, which takes place around the March equinox. It is the final day of a 19-day fast, and concludes with a feast of traditional foods.
Buddhism Offerings of mochi at the New Year for good fortune in the coming year are traditional in Japanese Buddhism.
Byzantine Catholicism The Feast of the Circumcision was traditionally celebrated on January 1.Greek Orthodox Archdiocese calendar of Holy Days
Eastern Orthodox The Feast of the Circumcision was traditionally celebrated on January 1.
Greek Orthodox Vasilopita, or St. Basil's Cake (or St. Basil's Bread), are sweet cakes eaten for the Feast of St. Basil on the first of January. Eating vasilopita is believed to bring blessings and luck for the upcoming year.
Islam
Islamic New Year is the first day of Muharram. On the first nine days a sherbet is eaten "to commemorate the intense thirst which Hussein suffered" during the battle of Kerbala. The tenth day is Ashura, a day of fasting. It does not occur on the same day of the Gregorian calendar every year. The 2021 date was in August and the 2022 date is predicted to be in July.
Judaism
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated by practicing Jews throughout the world on the first day of Tishrei, which falls between early September and early October. Rosh Hashanah meals usually include apples dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year; this is a late medieval Ashkenazi addition, though it is now almost universally accepted. Other foods with a symbolic meaning may be served, depending on local minhag, such as the head of a fish (to symbolize the prayer "let us be the head and not the tail"). Many communities hold a Rosh Hashanah seder during which blessings are recited over a variety of symbolic dishes. The blessings have the incipit "Yehi ratzon", meaning "May it be Thy will." In many cases, the name of the food in Hebrew or Aramaic represents a play on words. The Yehi Ratzon platter may include apples (dipped in honey, baked or cooked as a compote called mansanada); dates; pomegranates; black-eyed peas; pumpkin-filled pastries called rodanchas; leek fritters called keftedes de prasa; beets; and a whole fish with the head intact. It is also common among Sephardim to eat stuffed vegetables called legumbres yaprakes.
Some of the symbolic foods eaten are dates, black-eyed peas, leeks, spinach, and gourd, all of which are mentioned in the Talmud:Babylonian Talmud (Keritot 6a) "Let a man be accustomed to eat on New Year's Day gourds (קרא), and fenugreek (רוביא),Rashi (Keritot 6a) calls rubia by its Hebrew name "tiltan" (Heb. תלתן), which word he explains elsewhere as being fenugreek. However, Rabbi Hai Gaon, in one of his responsum in "Otzar Ha-Geonim", seems to suggest that "rubia" (Heb. רוביא) means cowpeas, or what others call, "black-eyed peas" (פול המצרי). Rabbi Hai Gaon's disciple, Rabbi Nissim ben Jacob (in his Commentary known as Ketav Hamafteah), thus explains the word לוביא, in our case spelled רוביא, as meaning non-other than cowpeas (פול המצרי), describing them as having a "dark eye in its center". Jews of North-Africa traditionally make use of stringed beans in place of rubia. leeks (כרתי), beet [leaves] (סילקא), and dates (תמרי)."
Pomegranates are used in many traditions, to symbolize being fruitful like the pomegranate with its many seeds.Spice and Spirit: The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook, 1990, New York, p. 508 Typically, round challah bread is served, to symbolize the cycle of the year. From ancient to quite modern age, lamb head or fish head were served. Nowadays, gefilte fish and lekach are commonly served by Ashkenazic Jews on this holiday. On the second night, new fruits are served to warrant the inclusion of the shehecheyanu blessing.
Shinto Offerings of mochi at the New Year for good luck in the coming year are traditional in Shinto.
Sindhi Hinduism Cheti Chand, the lunar Hindu New Year for Sindhi Hindus, is celebrated with feasts. It typically occurs in March or early April.
By country
Afghanistan
Afghanistan celebrates two New Year's Days, one according to the lunar Islamic calendar and one according to the Persian calendar. The Persian calendar New Year, No Ruz, is a two-week period celebrated at the vernal equinox which includes playing Buzkashi, considered Afghanistan's national sport, and eating samanak and haft mewah or haft mewa, which translates to "7 fruits" and is a dish of 7 dried fruits and nuts typically including raisins and golden raisins, dried apricots, senjed, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios, although recipes vary by region and family. Haft mewah symbolizes spring, and the number 7 is considered lucky.
New Year's foods may also include sabzi chalaw, a type of spinach and lamb curry; maasteh khanagi, a type of yogurt; kolcheh nowrozi or kulchai nowrozi, a cookie; and mahee and jelabi or mahi wa jelabi, a deep-fried fish accompanied by a fried and sugar-glazed batter. The family of a prospective groom traditionally prepares certain dishes as gifts to the family of the prospective bride during No Ruz.
Albania
No Ruz is celebrated on January 1 and includes haft sin, seven items that begin with the Persian letter sin, or S, typically including the food items samanu, sabzeh, seer, senjed, and serkeh, along with sekeh, a gold coin symbolizing prosperity, and sonbol, a flower symbolizing life and beauty. Samanu, a sweet wheat pudding, represents fertility and sweetness. Sabzeh, a lentil dish, represents rebirth. Seer (garlic) symbolises medicine. Senjed symbolizes love. Serkeh, an aged vinegar, symbolizes patience and age.
Algeria Algeria celebrates two New Year's days, the January 1st date of the Gregorian calendar and the first day of Muharram. The tenth day of Muharram is Ashura, and many Algerians will fast. Those who do not may eat couscous, which is one of Algeria's national dishes. Berber Algerians additionally celebrate the Berber New Year on January 14 or 12.
Armenia Armenian celebrations are on January 1, when flat breads called darin are baked. The baker includes a coin in the dough, and the person finding the coin in their portion is believed to be lucky in the new year.
Austria
Austria celebrates New Year's Eve as Sylvesterabend (eve of Saint Sylvester's Day) by drinking a spiced wine punch and eating suckling pig and Glücksschwein (good luck pigs). Glücksschwein can be made from various sweets; marzipanschwein are pigs made from marzipan. Feuerzangenbowle (fire tongs punch), the ingredients of which are red wine, rum, citrus, and spices, is a drink popularized by Die Feuerzangenbowle by Heinrich Spoerl and Die Feurzangenbowle by Helmutt Weiss.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan celebrates a secular holiday on January 1 and a religious holiday, Novruz Bayram, on March 21. Although most Azerbaijanis are Muslim, the January 1 holiday is often celebrated with a champagne toast just before and after the New Year. Germinating samani (wheat sprouts) and placing them on a woman's head is believed by some to cure infertility. The samani toyu, the ritual by which the samani is prepared, is participated in only by women. It is traditional for children to leave baskets on neighbors' doorsteps to be filled with sweets, nuts, and pastries while the children hide nearby. Trees which have not borne fruit are forgiven in a ritual called the Bailment of Trees. Samani, pakhlava and shakarbura are commonly eaten in the north and yeddi lovun, a type of haft sin, in the south.
Belarus In what is now Belarus, people celebrated Kaliady, a pagan festival at the winter solstice that was recognized as the beginning of the new year. After the advent of Orthodox Christianity, Kaliady traditions were retained as part of Christmas and New Year's celebrations. People go from house to house dressed as wild animals and carrying a goat's head, which symbolizes fertility, and householders give them food and drink.
Roast goose or chicken, stuffed with apples, is traditionally eaten for New Year's dinner. Eating as many pieces of meat as possible during New Year's dinner is believed to ensure happiness in the coming year, and a "bountiful table" will ensure wealth.
It is traditional to place a bit of bread for each family member on a shelf on New Year's Eve, with superstition saying that any family member's bread that is missing in the morning will die in the coming year.
Bulgaria