I don’t think any of us will be sorry to see the last of 2020, but you might want to check out these superstitions before you wave the final bye bye.
Stock your cupboards up with food and your wallet with money to bring prosperity in the New Year. Empty pockets or empty cupboards on New Year’s Eve portend a year of poverty.
Open a window a few minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve to let the bad luck out and welcome in good luck for the New Year. Then at the stroke of midnight you should open all the doors of the house to let the old year escape unimpeded.
It’s tradition to make a lot of noise at New Year celebrations to scare away the devil and his servants. Church bells are rung at midnight for the same reason.
Kissing at midnight ensures that affections and ties will continue throughout the New Year. It is also said that to not do this would be to set the stage for a year of coldness.
If you eat 12 grapes at midnight (one for each month of the year) you will have good luck for the entire year.
One food you don’t want to eat, however, is lobster. It’s believed that eating lobster before midnight on New Year’s Eve is bad luck because they move backwards, which will set you up for a year of obstacles. You also don’t want to eat chicken because chickens have wings and your good luck could fly away.
The direction of wind during sunrise on New Year morning prophesies about the coming year. Wind from south foretells fine weather and prosperous times ahead while wind from north foretells bad weather. Wind blowing from east foretells natural calamities and wind from west foretells plenty of milk and fish for all, but death of a person of great national importance. No wind means joy and prosperity throughout the year.
Nothing should be carried outside on New Year’s day to avoid carrying out the family’s good luck for the year ahead
Don’t leave the house until someone enters from the outside first on New Year’s Day. And no one should enter the home from the outside world without bringing in something from outside, to ensure a year of prosperity for the family within.
The appearance of an unexpected visitor on New Year’s Day means a year full of company for the household. If the unexpected visitor is a man it’s considered good luck, but if it’s a woman it means trouble.
If you dance in the open air, especially round a tree, on New Year's Day it ensures luck in love and prosperity and freedom from ill health during the coming twelve months.
Avoid breaking things or crying on the first day of the year if you don't want to continue the pattern for the entire year.
In several countries, people do not let money, jewelry, precious items or other valuable things leave home on New Year’s Day. You should also not pay loans and bills or lend things to anybody.
Mountain superstitions dictate that the traditional meal for New Year’s Day is black-eyed peas and hog jowl. The black-eyed peas are served in heaping helpings because each pea or bean eaten is a guarantee of one day of good luck. Hog jowl is also considered good luck.
You should only do a token amount of work on New Year’s Day to ensure advancement in your career, and starting a serious work project is unlucky. Working hard at a task will guarantee a year of hard labor, since whatever deeds are performed will influence a person's actions for the rest of the year. People go to the extent of not taking out garbage or even sweeping their carpets on this day to ensure that nothing goes out of home during the year.
It is also believed that washing dishes and doing laundry on New Year's Day will lead to a death in the family during the year. Many people do not even wash hair on New Year day.
Any superstition that tells me I shouldn’t wash dishes or do laundry is one I can really get behind. :-)
May you have nothing but luck in the New Year.
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