Three New Year's Traditions

Every culture follows their New Years traditions. This usually involves eating something at a specific time to ensure heath, luck and prosperity for the year to come. My family follows three. The Spaniards in us eat grapes, the Texas part of us eat black-eyed peas and as part of a community greatly influenced by Mexican culture we eat tamales.

Tamales
A tamal is little package of sweet or savory “masa”, a corn based dough. The dough is wrapped in a corn husk and steamed to perfection. The origins of this special treat date back to well before Columbus arrived in America. They were prepared and eaten by Aztecs, Incas and Mayans starting as early as 5000 BC.

To this day, tamales are a food enjoyed at big celebrations and festivals. In the Mexican American home, the holiday season begins with a gathering of the family for the preparation of the tamales. An entire day can be devoted to the husking, mixing, cooking, filling and steaming. 


We buy ours at Molina’s. Perhaps, not quite the same as breaking our back over the prep, but delicious nonetheless.

Black-Eyed Peas
Nope, this has nothing to do with Fergie. The black-eyed pea is a bean whose origins are believed to be in West Africa. It was introduced to the Southern US in the 17th century and has held an important part in African American culture and throughout the South. To this day several New Year traditions surround this little bean. Whether it’s cooked with ham, collard greens or stewed tomatoes, paired with rice or on its own, black-eyed peas have become a deep-set tradition ‘round these here parts.

My family has them for breakfast on New Year’s Day. The idea is that if the black-eyed peas are the first thing you eat, you’ll have a good year.

12 Grapes, 12 seconds

In Spain it is tradition to eat 12 grapes on December 31st, one for each strike of the clock as a countdown till midnight. The origins of this one are a bit hazy, but there’s a story going around that it all began when vine growers in Alicante, Spain had an abundant harvest. They came up with the idea of eating 12 grapes to represent the 12 months of the year, thus selling the huge amounts of grapes they had in 1909. Maybe, who knows?

Either way it’s pretty hilarious to watch everyone else trying to stuff their faces with 12 grapes. Plus, it’s double the fun in Spain because the grapes have seeds.


Does your family follow any New Year's traditions? Do tell!