Black eyed peas, rice and greens for New Year's Luck 🍀 [View all]

“ According to legendary Southern food journalist and writer John Egerton in Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History, black-eyed peas are associated with a "mystical and mythical power to bring good luck"1 and have been a Southern staple for more than three centuries. As for collard greens, they're green like money and will ensure you a financially prosperous new year. And isn't that what we all want anyway?

Many Jewish traditions include eating black-eyed peas as a part of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.2 But the tradition of cooking black-eyed peas with rice, in particular, is African in origin. It spread throughout the South—especially in the Carolinas—in the form of pilaus or rice dishes simmered for a long time with chicken or shrimp. When black-eyed peas were added to the pilau, it became Hoppin' John.”

https://www.southernliving.com/holidays-occasions/new-years/new-years-traditions-black-eyed-peas