Top Ten New Year's Day Superstitions

Living in the South, I grew up just 'knowing' that eating black eyed peas on the first day of the New Year was a good luck omen for the upcoming year. I detest black eyed peas, but every year, someone would tell me I should choke down at least one spoonful if I wanted to have a good upcoming New Year. When I became an adult, I stopped that silly superstition, until this year, when a member of my family decided to head out to the store to buy a couple of cans or black eyed peas for New Year's Day.

This prompted me to look up this silly superstition and see what others there were for the New Year.

What I discovered about the black eyed pea New Year's superstition was this: eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day is said to bring good luck and financial prosperity to the one eating them throughout the rest of the year. This is apparently a kick back from a time when the South was mostly unsettled, and black eyed peas were fed to the cattle. At one point, no supplies coming in or out, the settlers had to eat the black eyed peas fed to the cattle to survive a harsh winter until supplies could come, and it was the black eyed peas that were meant for the cattle that kept them alive.

Black eyed peas are New Year's Day superstition #1. Let's look at some other New Year's Day superstitions that aren't specific to the South.

New Year's Day Superstition #2 - Make Lots of Noise

Why do we celebrate New Year's with noisemakers, cheering, and exploding fireworks? Well, to scare away the evil spirits and start the New Year free from evil, that's why! Evil spirits are said to hate loud noises, so at midnight, as we enter the New Year, we make loud noises and cheer to send the evil spirits away.

New Year's Day Superstition #3 - Kissing Your True Love at Midnight

There's long been a superstition that if you kiss your true love at midnight on New Year's Eve, you will live in love and happiness with that person for the entire rest of the upcoming year. In direct contrast, not kissing your loved one at midnight is sure to set you up for a year lacking in affection.

New Year's Day Superstition #4 - Don't Lend Money

There is one superstition about New Year's Day that if you lend someone money or something of substantial value on the first day of the New Year, you will be loaning money out to people all year long. You're also not supposed to pay off any loan on the first day of the New Year either, for the same reason.

New Year's Day Superstition #5 - Don't Wash Clothes

Okay, this one surprised me. Apparently, if you wash clothes on New Year's Day, a family member will die during the upcoming year. I couldn't find how this superstition started, or why, but I found it on several websites about New Year's Day. A Couple of websites even said that the super superstitious amongst us won't wash dishes lest a loved one be 'washed away' during the upcoming year.

New Year's Day Superstition #6 - Work Successfully

If you want to be successful in your work or career this coming year, you need to be sure to do some successful work on New Year's Day. If you're a writer, you should write and submit an article or write a chapter in a book, or if you have some other type of job, you should do at least a little bit of successful work on New Year's Day. The warning here though is not to do too much work or work all day, or else that's a bad omen that you will constantly have to work, work, work all year long without much success.

New Year's Day Superstition #7 - Don't Cry

If you cry on New Year's Day, for sad reasons, then you set the tone for a year's worth of sadness and tears. Whatever happens, you should be happy and upbeat all day on New Year's Day in order to ensure a happy year to follow.

New Year's Day Superstition #8 - Be Careful

If you thought seven years of bad luck for breaking a mirror was a strong superstition, you sure want to be careful not to break anything on New Year's Day. Breaking something on New Year's Day is a bad omen that foretells destruction and bad luck in your future year.

New Year's Day Superstition #9 - Open Your Doors or Windows

One superstition for the New Year indicates that for the New Year to come into your home, you have to let the old year out, so you should open your doors or windows at midnight in order to let the old year leave and thus let the New Year enter your home and life.

New Year's Day Superstition #10 - Nothing Goes Out

Unless you want to be paying or giving things out or have people leaving you all year, nothing should go out of your house on New Year's Day. If your trash is overflowing, take it out before the first or wait until the second of January to take it out. Absolutely nothing should leave your home on New Year's Day, including you, at least until someone has stepped foot in your home before you step foot outside your home. You may want to have a family member or friend visit you on New Year's Day to break the threshold of your doorway before you go anywhere on the first. Beware though, it's said that it should be a man, not a woman, and that blonds and redheads are bad omens.

There you have ten New Year's Day superstitions. I'm still not eating any black eyed peas, and when I was three years old, I was interviewed and photographed for a local newspaper that had a caption under my picture saying that my New Year's resolution was to stop making New Year's resolutions. I haven't made one since.

To those of you who are superstitious, I hope these ten tips give you reason to push for good luck in the New Year, and for those of you who aren't, I hope you found them at least mildly amusing.

Happy New Year to everyone. Wishing you all the very best, brightest and most prosperous new Year ever.