Our whole house smells like pork & sauerkraut now

Posted by Jerry on January 20, 2004

In Reply to: Our whole house smells like pork & sauerkraut now posted by Bob on January 01, 2004

We have been eating pork and sauerkraut as the first food you eat in the new year for 50 years. I am from Pa. and started it as a child. I is a tradition that is supposed to bring good luck. We cook it on new years eve have it for dinner and then at midnight we have a snack to start the new year. If weare away we some how arrange to have some, some how, even in a motel room. My Pa relatives were mennonites from Germany. Our name means little horn in german. If it worked I don't know except I do have a wonderful spouse of 44 years.

: : : I can't remember that we had this custom in southern West Virginia when I was growing up. But I've picked up the habit of eating blackeyed peas on New Year's -- just in case. I knew it was a southern habit, but this article says the Greeks eat blackeyed peas also.

: : : Do you folks outside the U.S. try to boost your luck with any certain food item?

: : : Dec. 30, 2003, 5:40PM

: : : Food and fortune
: : : From grapes to black-eyed peas, lucky foods can work like a charm for the new year
: : : By DAI HUYNH
: : : Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

: : : www.chron.com/ cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/holidays/2319092

: : I believe it's a Coal Cracker tradtition to have pork & sauerkraut on New Year's Day. I'd never heard of it before I met my wife who comes from the anthracite mining district of Pennsylvania. I'm sure it originated with one of the immigrant groups involved in coal mining, but I'm not sure which one.

: In Scandanavia, if you eat herring as your first food of the new year, you presumably will have good luck for the year. So, then, blackeyed peas, herring, and sauerkraut ... good luck and indigestion to you all.