Top NEW YEAR Superstitions - Dos and Dont.... *What you do the first hour of the New Year will be what you do most of the year. Changing your undershirt or underwear on New Year’s Day can cause boils. We kiss those dearest to us at midnight not only to share a moment of celebration with our favorite people, to fail to smooch our significant others at the stroke of twelve would be to set the stage for a year of coldness. At midnight, all the doors and windows of a house must be opened to let the old year escape unimpeded. According to widespread superstition, evil spirits and the Devil himself hate loud noise. We celebrate by making as much as possible not just as an expression of joy at having a new year, but also to make sure Old Scratch and his minions don’t stick around. Italian people welcome the New Year by tossing old things out of their windows! Old things are tossed out in an effort to make room for the new and lucky to enter their households and lives in the year to come. In parts of the South, it’s traditional to eat hog jowl and black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day to bring good fortune. The Pennsylvania Dutch eat sauerkraut to get rich. A tradition common to the southern states of the USA is the eating of black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day to attract both general good luck and money. Also from the south the custom of eating greens such as cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, kale or spinach bring money. One more from the Southerners: eating cornbread will bring wealth. Hoppin’ John is a traditional New Year’s Day dish in the South. Legend has it that it must be eaten before noon to guarantee good luck. Eat black eyed peas and greens (spinach will work) on New Year’s Day — the peas are for good luck, the greens are for fortune (money!). Lucky foods which should be consumed on New Years Eve is lentil soup and pork. Chicken should not be eaten on the first day of the year or you will have financial difficulties for the rest of the year. Spanish Tradition: Twelve grapes are eaten at midnight, each grape symbolizing a different month. If your grapes are very sweet, then it means that specific month will also be sweet and pleasant. If your grapes turn out sour, then you know the month will also be sour. Pennsylvania Dutch New Year’s Superstitions: To keep yourself healthy in the New Year, eat smoked sausage. For good luck in the New Year, eat boiled cabbage. For overall good health, wealth and happiness in the New Year, eat pork and sauerkraut. Weather Conditions on New Years Day: A windless New Year’s day indicates a dry summer; A decent breeze foretells a good summer rain fall; If there’s no wind at all, a joyful and prosperous year may be expected by all. House Cleaning and Household Chores: Whatever a person does on this day will influence his activity for the rest of the year. Therefore to wash clothes will bring a year of hard work. Washing may also cause a relative’s death. In Tennessee, it’s said if you wash your clothes on New Year’s Day, you’ll wash someone out of your family. From Hawaii: Don’t sweep the house on New Year’s Day. Certain tasks were not to be done between Christmas and New Year’s Day– Clean your house before christmas and don’t clean it til after New Year’s — no sweeping good luck out the door. Do not wash dishes or do the laundry or there could be a death in your house that year. The theory behind it being that as you wash the dishes or laundry, you ‘wash away’ a person. Also, do not do the laundry on New Year’s Day, lest a member of the family be ‘washed away’ (die) in the upcoming months. The more cautious, even washing dishes. More New Year’s Do’s and Don’ts DO: To assure good luck for the New Year, one should sleep with a horseshoe under his pillow on New Year’s Eve. All doors and windows must be opened at midnight to let out the old year. Keep doors and windows open at midnight to let the old year leave and usher in the fresh New Year. It is believed that if you wear new clothes on the first day of the year, you will get many more new clothes during the year. DON’T: Do not break anything on this day. Breaking things on this day is considered a bad omen as it signals destruction in the coming year. So be careful! Crying on the first day of the year must be avoided. One must always be happy and in good spirits on New Year’s day. If you cry on New Years’ for a sad reason you will have sadness all throughout the year. For this reason children are not disciplined on New Years day. Stocking Up: The new year must not be seen in with bare cupboards, lest that be the way of things for the year. Larders must be topped up and plenty of money must be placed in every wallet in the home to guarantee prosperity. First Footing: The first person to enter your home after the stroke of midnight will influence the year you’re about to have. Ideally, he should be dark-haired, tall, and good-looking, and its best if he came bearing certain small gifts such as a lump of coal, a silver coin, a bit of bread, a sprig of evergreen, and some salt. Blonde and redhead first footers bring bad luck, and female first footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the household. Don’t let a woman near your door before a man crosses the threshold. A southern US superstitions says that your first guest of the year is a sign of the marriage balance for the coming year. If a man walks thru the front door first on New Year’s Day then the husband has more umph for the year, if a woman, than the wife. The first footer (sometimes called the “Lucky Bird”) should knock and be let in rather than use a key, even if he is one of the householders. No one should leave the premises before the first footer arrives — the first traffic across the threshold must be headed in rather than out. First footers must not be cross-eyed or have flat feet or eyebrows that meet in the middle. Nothing Goes Out: Nothing — absolutely nothing, not even garbage — is to leave the house on the first day of the year. If you’ve presents to deliver on New Year’s Day, leave them in the car overnight. Don’t so much as shake out a rug or take the empties to the recycle bin. Money: Do not pay back loans or lend money or other precious items on New Year’s Day. To do so is to guarantee you’ll be paying out all year. Keeping your purses and wallets with money, and keeping cupboards stocked with food is said to bring prosperity and luck in the New Year. Pay all your debts before New Year’s Eve as the New Year should not begin with the household in debt. Clear away all your loans, bills and debts so that you do not have any debts left for New Year. Reminder: Do not lend money or other precious items on this day as that would mean a year spent loaning out money. The End
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 03:48:20 +0000
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