For many, New Year’s is a time for superstitions

By TAYLOR BROWN
Senior Reporter
tbrown@yourmvi.com

While the new year can mark new beginnings, fresh starts and lots of things to look forward to, for many people it starts with paying homage to traditions and superstitions instilled by generations that came before them.

From eating certain foods to sharing a kiss at midnight, there are a lot of fun rituals and superstitions people participate in to bring love, health and wealth in the New Year.

In the Mon Valley, which is a melting pot of cultures, many people eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day, a tradition that originated in Germany and was brought to the United States by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Pork and sauerkraut are associated with good luck for a few reasons.

• Pigs root forward for food, which symbolizes moving forward in the new year.

• Cabbage is round and green, similar to coins and a sign of wealth.

• The green color of sauerkraut signifies financial prosperity.

In many cultures, eating foods that are round — because they resemble coins or money — is thought to help bring good luck into the new year.

In Italy, lentils are on the menu, and residents of the Philippines eat 12 round fruits — one for each month.

In the south, many people eat collard greens and blackeyed peas. The color of the collard greens represents dollar bills, and the peas represent coins.

In Spain they often eat grapes, a tradition that originated with Spanish grape farmers who had a surplus to sell.

Some people stock their fridges and pantries because of a superstition that bare shelves can indicate financial woes in the year ahead.

While food is a love language that spans continents and geographical bounds, superstitions and traditions for the new year take on other fun forms.

Kissing someone at midnight is thought to continue feelings of love for that person in the new year.

Fireworks and noisemakers are also a staple in many New Year’s Eve celebrations, and not just because it’s a party. The sounds of fireworks and other noisemakers like horns are believed to ward off evil spirits.

Some people put coins on a windowsill on New Year’s Eve to bring good fortune and prosperity in the coming

year, with the idea that having money visible at the stroke of midnight signifies financial abundance throughout the new year. It’s a tradition believed to have origins in Scotland.

Debra Bartman of Monongahela has a tradition with deep roots to her family history in the Mon Valley.

“Not unlike so many, my family, both maternal and paternal, has lived in and around the Mon Valley for generations,” she said. “On New Year’s Eve, we placed a piece of coal outside of the kitchen door.”

That Scotch-Irish tradition is known as “First Footer.”

“The premise is to place the coal outside a door to your house on the last day of the year and the first person to enter your home in the New Year should bring the coal in with them symbolizing bringing good luck, prosperity and warmth to the home and its occupants for the coming year,” she said. “My grandmother always said it should be a dark-haired person to physically bring in the piece of coal and this person should exit the home by another door other than the one they entered to be sure that any residual bad from the previous year exits with them.”

When she was growing up, nearly all her neighbors had coal furnaces, so it was easy to find a piece of wayward coal.

“Well into the 1970s, one of their neighbors remained the only house still using a coal furnace on their street,” she said. “A coal truck would deliver their load of coal, dump it on the side of their home and they would shovel it into a chute, which piled up near the furnace in their basement.

“Sometimes my grandmother would send us to their house to retrieve a piece before New Year’s Eve; just a small piece that hadn’t made it down the chute. Once their neighbor converted their furnace from coal, grandma would send us to walk along the railroad tracks to find a piece that fell from a coal car.”

It’s a tradition Bartman continues each year and has passed along through her family.

“Every time I look at that little piece of coal sitting on my kitchen window sill,” she said, “I think of my grandma and smile.”