Feasting for the New Year
As I try to recover from this year’s holiday cooking frenzy and also rush to meet deadlines, I offer a photo from my chaotic Christmastime kitchen as well as an excerpt from and link to a syndicated article on New Year’s foods from around the world. This piece appeared on December 30, 2009 in the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere.
“Feasts of Fortune”
There’s nothing quite like a New Year’s Eve party. Revelers clinking champagne glasses, blasting off fireworks and noisemakers, knocking loaves of bread against houses, and devouring 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Wait a minute! When did tossing bread and eating grapes become part of our holiday traditions?
Where we live greatly impacts how we ring in the New Year. While fireworks and noisemakers remain integral parts of the festivities, most countries possess at least one unique culinary custom for heralding the arrival of another year.
In Ireland, where famine had decimated the land, celebrations often focus on sustenance. Here folklore dictates that on December 31 citizens should strike the side of their houses with a loaf of bread while reciting a prayer for a hunger-free year. Likewise, friends and family should gather together for a large, lengthy meal, which will set the pattern for 12 subsequent months of prosperity.
Want to ensure sweetness and fortune in the coming year? Follow Spain’s example and consume a grape at every chiming of the clock at midnight. Each grape supposedly sweetens the corresponding month.
For more details about New Year’s traditions and recipes, click on the following link, Feasts of Fortune.
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