Beware of the fish... and the chicken... - New Year's Eve customs

First of all, happy new year to everyone reading this post! I hope you had enough booze, partying, and good wishes for 2022. Last year was an interesting one, with great and awful things happening. I would gladly avoid the latter in this new one, and keep only the good things going forward. We have a lot of plans I want to share with you at the end of the post, but first let’s get to the topic I brought you today!

We have a lot of customs and beliefs surrounding the first day of the new year. I’m not saying I believe them, but for some reason I still try to follow these every year. I’m not sure if because everyone in my family does so, or if deep down I lean towards believeing, but they won’t do any harm, and at least there’s the illusion of a little control over what’s about to come. So let me share with you a few of the customs and beliefes we have for this day! Feel free to add yours in the comments, I’m really curious about them.

1. What you do on the first day shall determine your whole year

This is the most abstract, but basically it means no working, no housework, no arguments, or fights because then your whole year will be filled with these. So just chill, have fun, and everything will be alright. Easier said than done isn’t it?

2. Foods for luck

There are thing you should and shouldn’t eat on New Years Eve and on the 1st of January. We avoid chicken because it scratches the luck away, avoid fish because it swims away with your luck, but eat pork, because it will find and dig up your luck. Beef is neutral in this question. The other big thing here these days is food made of lentils. We don’t really eat lentils on other days, but today it’s a must have. Some say it beautifies young girls, others claim that every piece of lentil you eat now grants a piece of money in the following year, so eat it up, all of them! According to my grandma, this works with every other grainy thing, even with rice or couscous, but lentils are the original. We also have a sort of lucky charm, a little bag full of lentils going around as a present you should re-gift to someone else each year.

3. Housework to avoid

There are some things you should avoid doing to keep the luck in the house. First: no washing, because you can wash away our luck. This is quite unfortunate today, because I have a lot of laundry to do, and need fresh clothes for work come next Monday, but it will have to wait ☹ Also you shouldn’t take out the trash, because (as you guessed it) you might just take out your luck with it. Our ancestorst were really fond f the idea that luck was a movable object. My mother actually went further, saying we shouldn’t take anything out of the house for the same reason, just stay at home and chill.  

We have many other superstitions on other days as well, but they are fading, only these New Years Eve traditions took the test of time. What about you? Don’t forget to tell me where you live!

We also have big plans for 2022. Last year we released our debut novel (you can buy it here and here, we changed the blurb as well, hope it’s better now!), and the sequel, Caravan of Fire is coming this year (you can read about it here: link). We don’t have the exact date yet, but May or June are most probable. We also finished the first draft of our third book, I want to edit and translate it this year. It’s much longer than the first two, so that’s going to be a challenge.

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Cheers,

Lory