5 Traditions to Bring Luck in 2021 + a Playlist
Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm
And so it has arrived: a new year. 2021! This year, the focus is on 2021 being better and 2020 being a dumpster fire. There are also the reminders from people that 2021 will not be instantly different; that we are in the same season of pandemic and heartache and oddness.
And yet, we are ready. We are ready to celebrate and welcome the new year and instill it with meaning. Welcoming each new year can come in many forms: parties, dancing, kissing, fireworks, endless Champagne, and more. But beneath the revelry and excess, the new year has a deep and unchanging meaning: a fresh start.
There are endless rituals to signify this fresh start. In Brazil, wear white for good luck and peace. In Latin America, wear red underwear for love, yellow for luck, and white for peace. In English and German folklore, kiss a person at midnight to dictate your year’s destiny. And the world over, drink Champagne. European royal courts drank it at celebrations as a status symbol, with the bubbly said to improve women's beauty and man's wit. As the drink’s price declined, advertisers marketed it to all as an aspirational drink and one for special occasions.
Below we’ve outlined five of our favorite rituals from around the world. They are unique and timeless and odd and beautiful. They are everything we adore about this world. Happy New Year, Nellies! We are toasting you from afar.
1) From Japan: Eat Year-Crossing Soba
In Japan, a classic New Year’s Eve custom is to dine on toshikoshi soba, also known as ‘year-crossing’ soba. Soba noodles are thought to bring good fortune. They’re firm and easy to break while eating, offering the ideal symbolism for ‘breaking off the old year.’ Enjoy the dish anytime before the clock strikes midnight; otherwise, it won’t represent a crossing into 2021.
2) From Ecuador: Burn an effigy
In Ecuador, people make effigies -- sculptures representing a person or idea -- that symbolize themes from their year. At midnight on NYE, they burn the effigies as a way of burning the old year and letting go of the bad from their year. The effigies can be any size and any idea: a piece of clay molded into the novel coronavirus, a photo of a toxic person, etc. Along with this tradition, we plan to write our intentions for 2021 to burn as well. Rather than a resolution, which is a firm decision, an intention is a loose, intended plan - the latter which we find more uplifting and fitting. By releasing the intentions into the ether, we are putting them into the world for the coming year.
3) From the American South: Dine on black-eyed peas & cornbread
Save this tradition for January 1. In the American South, eating black-eyed peas to start the new year is thought to bring luck and wealth, with the peas representing coins. While cornbread, the color of gold, is believed to beckon money into your life. Oftentimes, people make a side of cornbread with a dish called hoppin’ John - a mixture of black-eyed peas, pork, and rice. This dish was made by enslaved people in the South, with the black-eyed pea originating in West Africa.
4) From Spain: Eat 12 lucky grapes
At midnight in Spain, revelers eat one grape for each month of the upcoming year - 12 in all, to ward off bad luck for all 12 months. The origin of this custom is suspect, with some saying it came from farmers needing to unload a surplus harvest in the early 1900s and others saying it was Spain’s twist on the French tradition of drinking Champagne on NYE. Read more here.
5) From China: Light fireworks
This tradition is a global one today, though it originated in Chinese culture. Fireworks and festive noise makers are believed to ward off dark spirits and bring luck.
