Southern U.S. New Year's Day Superstitions (aka '2006 Predictatron')

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Superstition #1: What you do on New Year's Day, you will wind up doing all year long.

My wife refuses to do housework on Jan. 1 because the day is a harbinger of the rest of the year, and she doesn't want to be locked into housework all year long. Make with the sexxxing today if you want to get plenty all year long, do things you like to do, eat things you like to eat, avoid things you don't want around you all year.

Superstition #2: Your weather on Jan. 1 will predict your weather in general for the whole year.

So here in MS we're going to have unseasonably hot and humid weather all year. Fuck you, old wives and your tales!

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

Superstition #3: It's bad luck for the first person to cross your threshold on Jan. 1 to be a woman.

Especially bad luck for it to be a redhead. Good luck if it's a man, especially good luck if it's a dark-haired man. Last night we went out on the front porch at midnight to watch neighbors shoot off fireworks, and my wife made me go in the house first.

When my father-in-law was living, one of his jobs was to visit loads of relatives on Jan. 1, so he'd be the first across their threshold.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Superstition #4: Eat greens and peas on January 1 for financial success.

Greens = folding money, peas = coin. There's also the matter of hog jowls or ham hocks, but I don't think those have anything to do with wealth.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:21 (twenty years ago)

I think this one's more Irish than Southern, but my ex-wife had been taught by her grandmother to shake coins in her fist at midnight to guarantee wealth in the coming year. I, naturally, forgot to do this last night.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:29 (twenty years ago)

I like that one -- I might start doing it. We haven't had peas and greens on 1/1 in several years, but I might make a small pot of peas and a big green salad for dinner tonight. Can't hurt.

Also, I spent all morning on a huge vat of soup for freezing in small batches, so I'll cook a lot and be industrious n' shit all year, maybe.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:40 (twenty years ago)

eat things you like to eat, avoid things you don't want around you all year.

Eat greens and peas on January 1 for financial success.

wow, glad i had that salad for lunch!

― it was jody that killed the beast (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:51 (twenty years ago)

I wonder if shaking a handful of quarters brings more wealth than a handful of pennies.

Now that I think about it, some steamed cabbage, a pot of peas and a pan of cornbread sounds good.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 20:59 (twenty years ago)

Superstition #1: What you do on New Year's Day, you will wind up doing all year long.

Watching football?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 1 January 2006 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Well, extrapolate a little bit. You'll be parked on your butt all year long watching tv instead of doing anything productive. (For what it's worth, I'm watching football too.)

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 21:13 (twenty years ago)

I will apparently be working and posting to ilx. Sounds a lot like 2005.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 1 January 2006 21:18 (twenty years ago)

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/newyears/newyears.asp

― teeny (teeny), Sunday, 1 January 2006 22:32 (twenty years ago)

female first footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the household

i was the "first footer" this year. um, whoops.

Also, do not do the laundry on New Year's Day, lest a member of the family be 'washed away' (die) in the upcoming months.

fuck. i did three loads. does that mean three family members are going to die? i lost a pretty major one last year; ease up on me, eh?

― it was jody that killed the beast (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 1 January 2006 22:44 (twenty years ago)

haaa, yeah, we did four loads yesterday so we wouldn't have any today.

# Work: Make sure to do — and be successful at — something related to your work on the first day of the year, even if you don't go near your place of employment that day. Limit your activity to a token amount, though, because to engage in a serious work project on that day is very unlucky.

A perfect day for me to invoice December's work.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Monday, 2 January 2006 00:14 (twenty years ago)

- peas, more specifically black-eyed peas, at least in my household.
- #1 isn't just southern. they believe almost the same thing in russia -- whoever you spend new year's with is who you will spend the year with.

― Mitya (mitya), Monday, 2 January 2006 05:14 (twenty years ago)

Very interesting, the crossover with Russian tradition/superstition. When I was teaching at Ole Miss, we had some students from Russia. In talking with them one day, I asked, naturally, why did you come to the South. And they said that they felt the South and Russia had a lot more in common than Russia and the rest of the U.S. Some similar traditions, etc., plus the South is the only part of the U.S. which has ever suffered defeat in war.

Gives a different perspective.

I thought that was interesting.

― Hey Jude, Monday, 2 January 2006 05:58 (twenty years ago)

This thread is interesting! I have not heard of a lot of these new years traditions (only the obvious hogmany ones like first over the threshold etc).

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 2 January 2006 06:03 (twenty years ago)

Superstition #3: It's bad luck for the first person to cross your threshold on Jan. 1 to be a woman.
Especially bad luck for it to be a redhead.

so this means im doomed to a life of bad luck? suddenly, i understand everything about my life.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 2 January 2006 09:40 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Tomorrow I will bake bread, do a little bit of garden prep, not go anywhere near a fast food establishment, eat peas and (salad) greens, enjoy some alcohol but not too much....plans still developing.

― America's Next Most Disabled Ballerina (WmC), Thursday, 31 December 2009 21:35 (sixteen years ago)

i am flying on new year's day is that bad?

― tehresa, Thursday, 31 December 2009 22:20 (sixteen years ago)

it means you will spend the rest of the year on a plane :-/

― max, Thursday, 31 December 2009 22:23 (sixteen years ago)

1/01 blackeyed peas everyday

― girl, you gon' think i invented chex (m bison), Thursday, 31 December 2009 22:23 (sixteen years ago)

i wonder if i will go anywhere cool

― tehresa, Thursday, 31 December 2009 22:25 (sixteen years ago)

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